I was born in a period where music was slowly moving from being an art form to a commercial vehicle. For those not familiar with the term, it basically means that people stopped doing what the popuation loved to doing what made the most money. Frankly speaking the music that everyone loves should be the same as the music that pays right? Not really, beautiful music is not commercially successful in the short term but people will listen to it for decades to come. So what am I saying with regards to the music we have today, it's noise. Every now and then you can get a beautiful sound that gets you feeling great about your day but nonetheless they are usually lost in all the noise.
The younger generation, cant believe I'm not in that group anymore, would beg to differ with my characterization of their favorite music. Let me break down using something they are told to do when they grow up, you are better off working smart than working hard. Here is a perfect example, in the era of soul music most of the musicians would sit and work on a record which to be honest was great from the first track to the last. The work in question could take months and some even years to accomplish, every track is fine tuned and perfected. The product is probably 30 or 40 songs in which they end up picking out about 20 for the album. Nowadays an artists works on an album with about 12 tracks and only 2 or 3 of them are worth the time it takes to listen to them. I can authoritatively say that the last album I heard from an international musician that I could play from start to finish without getting bored was Usher's "Confessions". Music has now become just another cash cow, I'm not saying that its not honorable to be paid for your talent. Far from it, i believe that you shouldn't sell yourself short. That strangely applies to hip hop as well. Jay-z's first album Reasonable doubt was a powerful piece of art. It was produced in 1996 but i still have it on my playlist, since then he has however opted to water it down. True hip hop fans will ask what i mean so I cant really explain so listen to his first album then listen to Magna Carta and you shall see the difference.
Back to the subject matter, I can only quote the words of one my favorite rappers to summarize the words..."We sing for these kids who don't have a thing, except for a dream and a f***ing rap magazine. who post pin up pictures on their walls all day , idolize their favorite rappers and know all their songs. Or for anyone whose ever been through shit in their lives so they sit and they cry at night wishing they'd die until they throw in a rap record and they sit and they vibe, we are nothing to you but we the fucking shit in their eyes......
If I didn't have music i don't think I would survive this world........
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