HIP HOP IS CORRUPT AND BROKEN

HIP HOP IS NOT THE 'BLACK PUNK' AND NEVER HAS BEEN!

For many years now HIP HOP music has become the mouthpiece of 'AFRO AMERICAN CULTURE' and all it supposedly stands for. HIP HOP has even been given the title of 'the black punk' in what looks like an attempt to legitimise the actions that are carried out in the name of 'a higher power' (i.e the label owners).

For one, commentator's who state that HIP HOP is the new/black PUNK do not have a deep understanding of the feelings that inspire both music's and their respective attitudes.

As anyone who knows the history of punk (or at least one of them) should be able to tell the differences, they are about as hard to find as a bus on oxford street on a Saturday (i.e easy). Apart from the obvious ground level links between the two sub-cultures, there is a great deal between the two.

The two most striking differences between the two 'musical genres' is that despite the fact that many of musicians on both sides commonly (but not always) came from roughly the same kind of run-down housing estates (or 'project) and working class backrounds, the attitude's of the 'lucky select few' who went on to make 'rap' music were gob-smackingly selfishly wealth obsessed compared to those made by many (but admittedly not all) punk bands who's recorded lyrical output consisted of lyrics that espoused social justice and the rejection of riches for its own sake.

The most obvious example of this 'crass' attitude is 'RAP' stars going into interviews in the press and on TV to gloat about how many people that have been killed "for crossing my homies" etc, etc, and to watch all of those 'RAP' videos where lots of south African slave mined gold is ostentatiously shown along with vulgar fur coats that are worn along with a neck full of varying thick link gold chains plus the semi naked 'sex objects' hanging off the rappers arms, And who's music/ video stars spend a lot of time on the said videos waving money and guns at the watching audience cant be very inspiring on a social level and many of the young watching could (and sadly do) go on to believe that robbery, whoring, pimping and beating women is the only 'tough man' way of getting cash.

And of course there is the prevalent attitude that women are there just to be 'fuck holes' and are at the beck and call of the men who feel that they own women and can whore them out, beat them or use them to carry drugs, guns etc and they are seemingly there just so that 'the man' can beat the 'ho' when he feels like it.

On the other hand, the so-called 'white hip hop'- 'punk' had/has caught the public imagination for those looking for something with a bit more substance because it has a social conscience. (how many HIP HOP artists play regular gigs in aid of small local and big charities and 'causes' donating all proceeds?) And those pissed off with the way this country is slowly being sucked down the plug hole have turned for years to punk because far from wanting to just be part of the problem the bands stand up to say what they think is wrong (they don't always get it right but at least they try unlike the majority of 'RAP' bands), and unlike the 'hip hop krews' punk bands have no interest in bragging about how much money they have to throw about and don't show off about it in video's, to the media or on record. If punk bands were to do that seriously, they would of fallen flat on their faces a long time ago.

Like 'HIP HOP', PUNK has a large fan base among the less well off in our 'communities' and also those abroad who are in much the same situation, and it would gut some people who have been long term fans of bands to become the victims of said fave band waving the fans hard saved gig/record money in their faces and laughing at them because it would be seen as a...betrayal of the trust the fans put into the band/s in the first place, to many people the bands are those who it was hoped could give voice to those without a voice of their own, and yet the 'HIP HOP fans, many of whom are living somewhere around the poverty line for some reason don't find it even a smidgenly insulting that these 'stars' are making videos where they wave $1000's of dollars of the money earned when the same poor fans went without so that they could save up to buy the 'RAP' records, and yet the hard earned money is then used to rub into the faces of the people who parted with it in the first place. And as for HIP HOP being the black PUNK, most punk bands dont seriously sing about shooting people just because the victim lived another 3 stops away on the city train line, or do songs about giving women what they deserve because they are chattels of men. And nor did punk generally embrace the very institutions that had put them and their families down since the 1800's or further. Why do RAP 'ARTISTES' not call for the ending of these outmoded elitist 'ism' filled institutions so that new places welcome for all can be built? instead of embracing the outdated trappings of a society that feels has no place for those who are not of the "old white establishment 'Mayflower'/Anglo-saxon families" and who would never except people who are "not one of us" regardless of how much money they have in their pockets.

And RAP is full of the old "look at me, I'm now rich because of you and i want you to see how detached i have become from you, that's why i drive a car with smoked windows so i don't have to look at you poor toerags walking the streets and getting on your dirty over crowded smelly buses from 'A' to 'B' ".

RAP/HIP HOP did for a time have relevant things to say, when bands like PUBLIC ENEMY, N.W.A, and ICE T were around, but sadly bands and people like that were few and far between, especially now. Instead the scene is now more full of self obsessed 'gansta' rappers who want to show off to the poor blacks from their 'old ghetto's' how much money they now have, knowing that the fans could never reach the levels of wealth attained by the 'RAP' few.

To use poor people who have nothing compared to the new riches enjoyed by these 'RAP stars' to make them selves feel better is just...shit, yet that is how RAP/HIP HOP-ERS use the poor of their ex-'hoods' (that they moved away from years ago never to return to, unless it is to gloat,or to make "im still the same old homie that left the ghetto to persue a career in hollywood" video).

The whole musical RAP style is about nothing more than the pointless, gaudy, tasteless showing off of wealth in front of people who have no chance to pull themselves out of the gutter no matter how hard they try. so much for community spirit! when a pound (or dollar) is waved in many of these RAP peoples faces they would sell their grannies, and for that they expect respect?.

The social concience of RAP/HIP HOP is dead (not that it was HIP HOP'S driving force anyway) and its 'stars' shit on the people HIP HOP/RAP is supposed to represent and as a musical genre. It is corrupt and broken.

P.S, i dont for one minute think that punk is perfect but at least it tried.