I first heard Macklemore while listening to NPR tiny desk concert back in February of this year. He played 3 tracks, Same Love, Thrift Shop, and Hands Up or whatever that track is called. Anyway I heard this guy and thought cool, this kinda bohemian white rapper with this trumpet player that looks like they found him playing on a beach in Jamaica selling coconut water for a dollar to tourists. Oh and they got this fat nigga singing the hook who looks like a cast member from Sister Act 2. I had no idea this dude was about to take over my radio and television for the subsequent half year. This man is a phenom. He's an underground/internet sensation who is making guap off 3 tracks with no major label. I give him a lot of credit and personally find him to be a decent artist. Not my cup of tea but I get why he's popular. With that said let me continue...
This post is dedicated to the most entertaining combination of social media and pop culture that exists: Black Twitter + Any award show. This is the time when all the blackest funniest rachetest amateur twitter comedians come out to entertain the masses. It also happens to be one of my favorite hobbies. While watching the VMAs I noticed that Macklemore caught some serious (and hilarious) hate from followers. ie one of my followers tweeted "Macklemore is the white guy you date when you realize that you only date black guys" I was trying to figure out why Black People hate Macklemore so much and I think I figured it out.
Lets start this by saying black people are THE HARDEST race to please. You ever seen Showtime at the Apollo? You better entertain us quick or we will sandman your ass off stage so fast you will wish you never saw a stage in your life. We are HARSH. Not only do we want our cake, we want to eat it obviously BUT it better be our favorite cake with a cold glass of milk. Oh and dont let us find out that another race got a better cake cuz we'll want that one too. With that said we are very protective over our music. We have no problem with other races participating in music we create but you better damn sure make it some music that we like. A couple years back I wrote a post called 10 White People that Black People Love. Some notable musicians on the list included Justin Timberlake, Robin Thicke, Eminem, Michael McDonald (lol) I explained why black people love them and the points ring so true to this post that I felt compelled to bring them to the attention of the readers.
So here is a list of the reasons I came up with.
Why Black People Hate Macklemore.
1. He's white (and rich)
this is sad but true. If your a rapper and white and rich, you've already got some ground to cover before your getting the black vote.
2. He has no Black cosigners.
If you notice all the white musicians we love have respected Black friends JT got Jay Z. Eminem has Dre , Robin Thicke has the envy of every Man on his arm in Paula Patton. We respect that and that brings me to the next point.
3. Macklemore dates a white woman.
Now you might be thinking, well he IS White, BUT I guarantee if he showed up to the VMAs with a black woman or at least acknowledged he like Black Chicks he would get more love.
4. He's got corny music.
Now this should be at the top of the list since we are discussing music but unfortunately its clear that we Black peopel don't give a shit whether your music sucks...if your Black (2 chains, lil Wayne, Trinidad, etc...)
5. His only black friends look like some really humble fat nigga
formally of the Harlem Boys Choir all grown up (Ray Dalton) and that nigga with dreads that hangs out in front the coffee shop reciting original poetry at 12 noon who you're still not sure is homeless or not. (his trumpet player)
Long story short. We dont understand Macklemore. He's "weird" black people dont do weird, and we really dont like different (so sad). We dont know how to pronounce his name and we hope he'll be forgotten before we actually figure out how to say it right. I'm sorry Macklemore. We're not jumping on your bandwagon anytime soon.
A recent poll showed that Americans are increasingly segregating
themselves. My generation in particular more and more is finding to only have
friends with in their own racial group.I’ve been privilege to grow up in a middle class wonderland in Central
Maryland, in a little town outside of Baltimore. Through out my High School career I had a number of friends
from a range of different cultures. What ends up happening when you live in the
suburbs is periodically you get bored, and periodically you get stoned with
said kids. For those who smoke on the blog know, your appreciation for music of
all types increases ten fold when you are high. Fortunately, the control of
music was passed around us along with the said blunt or bottle of jack. In
light of that new poll, I wondered how my life would have changed if I didn’t
have any white friends. The most immediate and glaring change would be my
iTunes playlist. So, here is a list of bands I would never have appreciated if
I didn’t hang out with white people.
Upon listening to J Cole, and Wale’s new album, I find
myself getting increasingly frustrated with mainstream hip-hop artists these
days. Hip Hop has fallen into a value menu kind of production, where you look
at an artist album list and you find yourself able to tell what a song is about
based on title and whose featured. What’s even more bitchass about this problem
is even the beats are predictable. It’s like going to McDonald's and selecting
a value menu. You know exactly how much it will be, how it will taste, and even
essentially what it will look like. You don’t go to McDonald's for variety,
but the same old shit. And just like McDonald's, these Value Menu flows are
unhealthy to the art. These artist stay in their lane, get their
checks and pump out the same recycled Starbucks raps that you can find on any
one of their features.
“Hey I got Nicki Minaj
on a verse.” “Oh Word.” “Yep, Guess what’s the song about.” “Ummm deep
resonating story of how you escape poverty?" “Nope.” “Hard in the paint flow, where
both of you use words in new and interesting ways?” “Nah nigga.” “ASS ASS ASS?” “Hell
Yeah, how you know?”
Wiz takes the best of
the Pharcycde, whittles it down too only their smoking references, takes out all the
humor and wonderful word play, lights a blunt himself, forgets what the song was about in the first place, lights another blunt, says Taylor Gang a couple times, lights a third blunt, naps, and then lays 16 bars of pure garbage.
Drake’s one of those
artists that is hit or miss for me. Out of anyone on this list, I truly believe
Drake is pushing the envelope. He took Kayne’s backpack pour my heart out style
of rap, got rid of the black conscious part, and turned it mainstream. Like
making a Black Panther movie distributed by Disney. However if you want that
song where teenagers can hold each other close at prom, you go to Drake.
Ever notice how 2
chains can only really rap 2 lines at a time. That’s because he can only think
2 lines at a time.
$.99 Jock T-Pain’s
entire Image: The Future
Can't afford Miguel or Chris Brown. Need a tone deaf rapper sing on track so bad even auto tune can't help. Don't want to pay T-Pain. Yep, you got The Future.
A couple months before 5ivebruhs was launched three of the original contributors attended a concert that would change our lives forever. This was the 2nd annual Roots Picnic in June of 2009. Apart from seeing some unforgettable mainstage acts like TVOTR, Santigold, The Black Keys, Public Enemy, and of course The Roots it was one of the smaller acts in the adjacent tent that caught our attention. Me, Optimus Negro and Bob George stumbled into the tent when we heard the piercing synth sound coming from the stage, and as I looked to the stage I see this skinny white guy with an Elvis-esque coif singing dancing like Prince reincarnate. They were playing as if they had a hit record and like everyone knew the words (which none of us did). I remember looking around at the sea of people surrounding the stage amped at the energy of the performance, all of us wondering "who the fuck are these guys??" This band we would later find out was Francis and the Lights. After a brief internet search I became an instant fan and wanted to hear everything they had ever done and that level of fan support is still alive to this day. After three years since there last LP "It'll Be Better" they dropped a single the about a week and a half ago. I listened to it and immediately bought it on iTunes. I hope you all enjoy them as much as I do and if you have 25 minutes to spare and a little marijuana you might wanna check out their live performance called White Room on YouTube. For the non-smokers it will still be enjoyable but the smokers will have their mind blown. Heres the video for the new single below. If you like it and have a little time, take a brief internet journey and discover an awesome band...
About a year back me and a friend were having a conversation about music specifically the way people are making it into the industry nowadays. He said nowadays you have to make the internet your bitch. He was right. The internet is creating opportunities for artists who otherwise would probably never get the chance. The more connected and social media savvy you are the better. The genre that seems to be benefitting from this the most is Hip Hop. I know plenty of people would argue exactly the opposite but stay with me.
There are a couple reasons that the Hip Hop game has benefitted from current internet trends. On the production level Hip Hop is like basketball you dont need much to play. It used to be you needed to purchase studio time for you to even create a mixtape. Those days are LONG gone. Nowadays all you need is a computer a drum pad and a mic and you can produce and record your own music right outta your closet. Oh, and now you can upload your music directly to a website that you dont have to build yourself, just use your Tumblr page that youve already been posting on. BOOM youve put major record labels outta work. Plus with a strong Facebook and Twitter following, you've have created your own fan base and demographic. The internet has transformed the genre and created indie rap. Not to be confused with underground hip hop indie rap relys heavily the internet community and those who break through seem do so overnight.
I had a real problem with this at first. I felt that the music that came from these overnight successes didnt warrant the attention they were enjoying. I felt that the musicians that were some how finding a way to rise to the top didn't have the same appreciation for the music as their predecessors. My own interpretation of hip hop had previously been a little less progressive but I have since changed my tune. While some would say that Hip Hop has strayed away from its roots. I would say that in many ways its returned in grand fashion.
Hip Hop can not only be enjoyed by everyone, anyone can participate in it for any reason and at least in the indie sub genre, its up to the fans and (the hip music blogosphere) not the music executive big wigs who make the decisions on who becomes successful. These musicians have absolutely no need for a major label, and some are able to organize world tours without being signed. Does this hurt the genre? Not at all. Does it mean everything that comes out is good? Not at all. For example, when has liking rock mean that you like all rock? Rock has been around long enough to evolve and spawn dozens of subgenres. Naturally hip hop would follow suit and the internet was the perfect catalyst to bring about this change. The task of pushing the genre forward has been placed in the hands of the artist and the consumer where it should be in my opinion. There's rap for damn near anyone nowadays. Also The artists seem to care less about others affiliations. You've got young lyrical prodigies doing features with swag rappers and demented provocateurs on tour with comics turned rappers who hang with the druggie hip hoppers.
It's a strange but refreshing and exciting time for Hip Hop I'd say. I would go on record and say that the internet has helped Hip Hop more than any other genre but I will never make a blanket statement like that. The only media outlet that may hold a candle may be television. Netflix has proved this with the successful original series House of Cards and this weeks return of cult classic television series Arrested Development (which I reupped my subscription specifically to watch when I heard the news) . Youtube channels are hosting original premium television monetized by advertising in much the same way traditional TV does. Television is quickly making the internet its bitch as well. The proliferation of web based media is the wave of the future and theres no stopping it. I'm just glad that my beloved hip hop is thriving in the midst of it.
So I feel like all of the bruhs on the blog have written an article or two on music. The P!per has not. This article will be about the music of my life. I have been told that I’m very stubborn in my musical tastes, and I say, “I like what I like.” I’m trying to branch out but I’m very determined in my tastes and it takes a special song/album/artist to make me go against this. I recently found out, due to the help of Bob George, that my musical tastes can pretty much be summed up in two words for $6.99. Joe Public.
As a boy, I owned one cassette tape before the age of eleven, at which time I bumped up my repertoire substantially with Uncle Luke’s “Raise the Roof.” I only had the single which had two versions and an instrumental, and I thought that little dance was the shit. Anyway, the cassette I listened to night after night for literally about a year and a half was Joe Public. This album had the smash hit, Live and Learn, which has already been featured on this blog by me. I will break down the three main aspects of this album and how they relate to today’s music, and if you know me, you know this is my bread and butter music. These are dance hits, love music, and conscious rap. Different types of music that fulfill different roles in my life.
Dance hits
Joe Public tracks that relate: I’ve Been Watching, I Gotta Thang, and I Like It
Please notice how all the songs are directed at the listener to self-identify. Simple and effective.
Hate them or love them, they have their function. Gucci mane’s retardedness gets him fans. Soulja Boy’s infectiveness to adolescence wanting to be the coolest kids at the party by knowing how to do a choreographed dance for 3 minutes, make him a banger. And my “mature” and “non-following” the trend behind shakes my ass just as hard as the next nig. I jig wit it and rock wit it. I lean the left and yoooooullll! Why? Cuz I be drunk and having a blast.
These songs usually have an infectious beat and when you hear them you can’t help but to “snap your fingers and rock yo hips.” The lyrics of these songs is all but pointless and only adds to the array of sounds produced from the speakers. Well that’s unless its someone like the New Boyz and they are requiring you to jerk.
Joe Public does this like every other early 90’s group, with electronic and synthesized instruments as well as live ones. Uptempo drums and wild vocals drive home the message: “If you rest yo butt, you get no cut. And without no cutty u bust no nutty.”
Love Music
Joe Public tracks that relate: I Miss You, Touch You, and Look in Your Eyes
Notice how all the songs are directed at the listener to identify a lover. Once again simple, and effective.
I’m a sucker for a good love song. Ask my roommate what I do in the shower. No nigs I’m not homo. I sing. And ask him what I sing, my caucazoidial roommate would attempt to make out the words he often hears. This is Shai’s “If I ever fall in love”. CLASSIC! I only sing the chorus, bc I really can’t sing and the verse is some sick shit with harmony for days. I wouldn’t do it justice. Boyz II Men “End of the Road” is a second favorite, I believe my friend of the caucazoid mountain region even knows this one, everyone does. My favorite R&B artists out right now are Musiq Soulchild and John Legend respectively.
I don’t do female artists. I think they are sexy and can sing their asses off and I admire them deeply.But am I the only nigga who feels weird singing lyrics that are directed toward the affection of a man? I got sick of changing the words “him” to “her” and “he” to “she”. I’m not homophobe but like the Roots say, “It don’t feel right”. Incomplete by Dru Hill? RIDICULOUS! And old school jams? Too many to name, love them all.
Joe Public does this with simplistic lyrics and not too hot vocals, but when you’re seven, you just feel cool with headphones on. These are all songs that you can have sex to. But you don’t “fuck” to these jams baby. Oh no. You “make love” (My next article topic so heads up).
Conscious Rap
Joe Public track that relates: THE ONE AND ONLY, “Live and Learn”
Notice how the message is not hidden. Like with all 90's music, what you see is what you get.
This is by FAR my favorite type of musical indulgence. Conscious rap is second to none with me. If I had a man crush, no homo, it would be on Common. I also love Black Thought (who is actually a better lyricist than Common), Guru, Mos Def, Talib, Rhymefest, De La Soul and the list goes on and on and on. Conscious rap has been a guilt free pleasure for me. I love the music, but I’m no killer or drug dealer, so I needed something I can relate to and take something away from. I’m not taking away shit from gangster rap, but I can’t condone myself listening to it too much. The first conscious rap song I think I recognized listening to was Common’s "The Light". My favorite Common joint to this day simply because it introduced and brought me into a whole nother world or music. I appreciate the song and Common for that. Now while this is a love-rap song or w/e, it did have a deeper meaning in depicting the type of woman to go for and for what reasons. My favorite conscious rap song of all time? Gangstarr’s “Moment of Truth.”
Joe Public was actually my first dose of this genre of music. I had no idea, but the message conveyed in “Live and Learn” was a great one and was probably the only reason I had the album. Edwina (mom-dukes) wasn’t letting me get no Tupac. Probably why I think that bald headed scallywag is over-rated. Joe Public gave a concise message and didn't sugar-coat it:
"Here`s a little story about life
Everybody that lives surely dies
A lot of people ask the question why
Some people have to go through so much more
Before they really learn about life`s score
The subject is not to be ignored"
I appreciate that.
I listened to Joe Public every night before I went to bed. I would fall asleep to it every night. But because it was on cassette I think I only ever listened to Side A cuz I passed out. I don’t really remember the second half until I recently reacquainted myself with the glory. I think Side A is embedded in my subconscious, maybe that’s why I’m so stubborn. I wonder if that thing about listening to stuff while sleep makes you memorize it really works.
***Sidenote, I actually put time, energy and effort into memorizing the lyrics to Raise the Roof. I could talk really fast as a young’n. I bitched out of performing the song at the family reunion talent show.***
So what album would you say defines or created your musical tastes?
I went to a fairly diverse high school. In fact, our principal, often boastedthat our high school was a microcosm of the United States.However, despite the diversity, we still manage to segregate ourselves in to various factions biased on thought, religion, race, and social status. It seemed the main factor for these divisions at the time was musical taste. It defined who you were, and connected you to the members of your various social groups. For example the Emo kids listened to Evanescence and Jap pop, Theater nerds exclusively show tunes (or the occasional rock opera), etc. Now being a black kid it was expected that I listened to one thing: Hip Hop. So when I reached high school I was immediately placed into a gallant of social stigmas biased on my knowledge of hip hop. Unfortunately for me, hip hop was banned from my home until high school. The first album I even thought of owning was Stankonia by Outkast, and was so shocked by the profanity that I immediately apologized to my mom for purchasing it. I myself was a little budding nerd, who dug Red Hot Chili Peppers, Korn, Linkin Park, and the music of Final Fantasy.As an effect I was hit with a landslide of judgment, and public scoffing. So what did I do? I faked it. I didn’t particularly like hip hop (with the exception of Outkast, Public enemy, and Eminem) so I forced myself. I believed that to be truly “black” I had to not only love this music, but embody it. Consequently when I entered college I was a hip hop head, to the point where it was in the very swagger of my being. >But this became an issue. It wasn’t me. I wasn’t gangsta, quite the contrary. I wasn’t a playa. I was just a nerd, who was trying way too hard. As an effect I stuck out, having thrown on this mantle, and trying to fit into my own stereotype of what I thought hip hop was. In college I found myself hanging in groups of radically different people, unlike in high school, and consequently listening to their various forms of music. It became insane the amount of music that I was exposed to. I listened to everything from show tunes, to classic rock, to blues, to jazz, to salsa, to even country. As an effect I began to form my own taste in music, that is truly and uniquely me. I thought this would put me at odds with the hip hop world, whose forced exposure helped me form a resounding passion for it, and throughout college it did. What I listened to was not played by my black friends, and my other friends were perplexed and often openly laughed at hip hop. Once again I was at odds with myself. Then I went to the Roots picnic.
What I discovered was hip hop is not limited to one style of music, rather it is an all encompassing culture that is linked within our generational heritage. It exists in the very foundation of our self expression. The Roots gathered bands from across the musical spectrum, to create an event and a sound that was truly American. It was hip hop. And it was divine. >It helped me rest a little easier in my skin. I realized that my musical taste could not, nor should it, be dependant on the social groups that we claim. To my beautiful people who find themselves too often listening to just hip hop or R&B: Music is a part of your identity and a foundation of what you use to express yourself. So let it. Develop a deeper love for all things with a melody, and help it inform you as a person. Allow it to enrich yourself, and perhaps we all will be a little better for it.
And Now for your viewing pleasure the Yeah Yeah Yeahs:
This post is dedicated to the most entertaining combination of social media and pop culture that exists: Black Twitter + Any award show. This is the time when all the blackest funniest rachetest amateur twitter comedians come out to entertain the masses. It also happens to be one of my favorite hobbies. While watching the VMAs I noticed that Macklemore caught some serious (and hilarious) hate from followers. ie one of my followers tweeted "Macklemore is the white guy you date when you realize that you only date black guys" I was trying to figure out why Black People hate Macklemore so much and I think I figured it out.
Now this should be at the top of the list since we are discussing music but unfortunately its clear that we Black peopel don't give a shit whether your music sucks...if your Black (2 chains, lil Wayne, Trinidad, etc...) 
