New Ice Cube - Everything is Corrupt
- Thread starter Ry
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Ice Cube's story has so much and so deep irony in it - you have someone who goes from making some of the angriest, most powerful and most thoughtful fusion of political and gangsta rap to being precisely the kind of cog in the corporate machine (a handsomely paid one though) he hated so much...
Truly amazing transformation...
Truly amazing transformation...
Another classic case of ranting hypocrisy... Dude doesnt even keep it reel to himself... Its a good song nonetheless but it sure aint gonna change a damn thing... So meh!!
Props:
Darkshowdown
Yall are looking at the small picture here. Yes he hustled his way to the top so you cant knock it right? Yall already know he came from NWA who was putting the real shit from the streets out to the public. He became a household name, capitalized off it and then what? There's a point in life where you go full circle.
Craig knew that the game done changed and the youth is being exposed to a bunch of bullshit that they're believing. Not only in the rap game but the whole entertainment industry showing the new generation that this is the "American way" and its normal. Its crazy how back when us 70's/80's babies were growing up, music with a positive message was accepted and our television had a moral to a story. Today its Chief Keef, Jersey Shore, Keepin Up With The Kardasians.
Appreciate that an established artist is telling the public how it really is. If your knockin Cube for putting a political track like this, why arent you knocking 2pac for putting a out "They Dont Give A Fuck About Us." or Michael Jackson's version "They Dont Care About Us."
Craig knew that the game done changed and the youth is being exposed to a bunch of bullshit that they're believing. Not only in the rap game but the whole entertainment industry showing the new generation that this is the "American way" and its normal. Its crazy how back when us 70's/80's babies were growing up, music with a positive message was accepted and our television had a moral to a story. Today its Chief Keef, Jersey Shore, Keepin Up With The Kardasians.
Appreciate that an established artist is telling the public how it really is. If your knockin Cube for putting a political track like this, why arent you knocking 2pac for putting a out "They Dont Give A Fuck About Us." or Michael Jackson's version "They Dont Care About Us."
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^^ word...it sounds like the earlier posters want him to put himself back in the shoes of a struggling 9 to 5 man and only then will he be allowed to speak on the truth...hes in the position he is now..might as well ride it out, i know i would..but i also know my roots and know where i came from and what i went through, and that there are millions going through the same shit, who see the same corruption, poverty, abuse,etc...only they dont have the outlet like he does to voice his opinion...im not trippin on the actual track,...but the message is there...
In retrospect, it is actually debatable whether NWA were really putting out the real shit from the streets - today we know a lot more about the history of the group and the background of its members than people back then did and there seems to have been quite a strong Hollywood element in the whole thing, especially after Cube left. The subsequent development of their careers certainly supports that view. That's not to say they did not make the world aware of a lot of truths about the situation on the streets, but the truth is that even if they weren't in it for the money from the very beginning, they certainly were towards the end. And if Cube wasn't in it for the money when he went solo and he channeled his anger and creative energy into making those classic albums, he is in it for the money now.
Can you knock him for hustling his way to where he is now? You can't, he made his money, more power to him.
But there will always be a strong element of hypocrisy when you have started as an artist that was the face of a rebellion against the system and you eventually became part of that system. And much more so when you make tracks that talk about how corrupt the system is AFTER you have made that transition.
It's a contradiction that has been part of hip-hop since the first time anyone made money out of it. Hip-hop used to present an alternative to the mainstream (that's not the case anymore because there is a whole generation now that has grown up after that era was over) but as it became successful, it got swallowed by that same mainstream it was supposed to be an alternative to. Same thing happened with the baby boomers who became hippies in the 60s and early 70s and eventually turned into the cogs in the corporate machine that made the world the corporatocracy that it is now.
That's how life is...
These are much bigger trends that hip-hop, as you point out too. Hip-hop would have been most likely swallowed up even in their absence; there was a small chance it could have evolved into a niche market and a compact subculture the way heavy metal did, but it stood absolutely no chance in the bigger scheme of things
Because 2Pac died before he could sell out so we are allowed to keep the hope he would have never sold out. Note that I am not saying he would have, although when you comapre 2Pacalypse and All Eyez On Me, the difference is clear.
Also, Cube is not telling anything people who would listen to that track don't already know. Just check the approval ratings of the main institutions in this country.
Can you knock him for hustling his way to where he is now? You can't, he made his money, more power to him.
But there will always be a strong element of hypocrisy when you have started as an artist that was the face of a rebellion against the system and you eventually became part of that system. And much more so when you make tracks that talk about how corrupt the system is AFTER you have made that transition.
It's a contradiction that has been part of hip-hop since the first time anyone made money out of it. Hip-hop used to present an alternative to the mainstream (that's not the case anymore because there is a whole generation now that has grown up after that era was over) but as it became successful, it got swallowed by that same mainstream it was supposed to be an alternative to. Same thing happened with the baby boomers who became hippies in the 60s and early 70s and eventually turned into the cogs in the corporate machine that made the world the corporatocracy that it is now.
That's how life is...
These are much bigger trends that hip-hop, as you point out too. Hip-hop would have been most likely swallowed up even in their absence; there was a small chance it could have evolved into a niche market and a compact subculture the way heavy metal did, but it stood absolutely no chance in the bigger scheme of things
Because 2Pac died before he could sell out so we are allowed to keep the hope he would have never sold out. Note that I am not saying he would have, although when you comapre 2Pacalypse and All Eyez On Me, the difference is clear.
Also, Cube is not telling anything people who would listen to that track don't already know. Just check the approval ratings of the main institutions in this country.
so people complaining about cube rapping about this shit because he's wealthy? yet when wealthy rappers rap about their wealth most people dont like it and "want them to keep it real" smh. I look at music for myself and not the person rapping. as long as i personally like the message or just flatout like the talent it shows then i'm happy. i'm not sitting there listening to songs while surfing wikipedia and pointing out how fake or real it is to the person who made it. These rappers are here for our entertainment, rapping isnt just a personal journal.
Rapping about how wealthy you are is a very tricky thing to do right. Most of the time it comes out as either:
1) Boasting from someone who obviously isn't living what he's rapping about
or
2) Obnoxious arrogance from the few rappers who actually have the kind of money they are boasting about. Kanye West is a perfect example of how you don't do it.
In both cases people do it wrong when in addition to bragging about the money they have or lie that they have, rappers are talking in second person
about how much other people (i.e. whoever listens to the record) suck because they are not rich.
It has been done right only occasionally, when it is creating a fantasy world which both rappers and listeners would like to live in and the "I'm rich, you suck" indulgence is kept to a minimum. Cash Money did it well in the late 90s.
Now, in the case of Ice Cube, people are not criticizing him for making that song while being wealthy, they are criticizing him for being wealthy in the first place, and especially, for how he became wealthy and keeps making money. Which does not fit at all with the image he presented and views he expressed in the beginning of his career
1) Boasting from someone who obviously isn't living what he's rapping about
or
2) Obnoxious arrogance from the few rappers who actually have the kind of money they are boasting about. Kanye West is a perfect example of how you don't do it.
In both cases people do it wrong when in addition to bragging about the money they have or lie that they have, rappers are talking in second person
about how much other people (i.e. whoever listens to the record) suck because they are not rich.
It has been done right only occasionally, when it is creating a fantasy world which both rappers and listeners would like to live in and the "I'm rich, you suck" indulgence is kept to a minimum. Cash Money did it well in the late 90s.
Now, in the case of Ice Cube, people are not criticizing him for making that song while being wealthy, they are criticizing him for being wealthy in the first place, and especially, for how he became wealthy and keeps making money. Which does not fit at all with the image he presented and views he expressed in the beginning of his career
Nigga shut the fuck up. Trying to sound intelligent with your posts. You know dam well people hating on Cube for making a track because he all of a sudden wanna spit some real shit. You cant knock that niggas hustle for selling out and making money. After he done accomplished that, then he wanna wake the people up. I give him props for that because if he was all about money, he wouldnt take the time to make a song like this.
Dumbest post on a gangsta rap forum ever!
Dumbest post on a gangsta rap forum ever!
Props:
SteadyMobbin
Somebody explain to me how cube sold out?? By maximizing the opportunities that were given to him?? I'm not understanding this whole selling out thing... Should he have just stayed in the hood his whole life in order to keep it real?? As long as the message registers then i don't understand the criticism...
Props:
tipsy and J-FUNKTION
It's the film and TV activity that's the problem.
But I was not directly accusing him of selling out, I was just highlighting the inherent contradiction between being an outspoken critic of the american socioeconomic system and then making millions of dollars from precisely the kind of canned entertainment that's a core method of mass mind control for that same system.
Yes, if you're given the opportunity, it is natural to cash in. But there is an inescapable moral dilemma in the whole thing
But I was not directly accusing him of selling out, I was just highlighting the inherent contradiction between being an outspoken critic of the american socioeconomic system and then making millions of dollars from precisely the kind of canned entertainment that's a core method of mass mind control for that same system.
Yes, if you're given the opportunity, it is natural to cash in. But there is an inescapable moral dilemma in the whole thing
Props:
NotAllThere