The problem with urban music

I believe that the majority of hip-hop/urban/whatever-you-want-to-call-it music is NOT in line with the thug image projected by mainstream marketing of the genre.

Even if it doesn't use violent imagery, most hip-hop underground is more topical than the usual pop style "love" songs, so even if it's more uplifting than the the 50 cent thug BS of the world, the topical nature makes people uncomfortable, I guess. Better to gloss over and sing about your prom date, right?

Discuss.

I'm too mature for discussing 50 Cents, but wouldn't have a problem to produce something like that. The new Mary J. Blige "The Breakthrough" is fine for me this christmas.

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I don't dig a lot (most) of modern R & B. I liked Blackstreet. I liked EnVogue and TLC. Today I hear a steady stream of re-hash. Drivel.

It's the same with the "Alternative Music Scene". Yikes, there's a phrase to send shivers down your spine.

But I digress... Urban, Shmurban. Give my something with soul and I'll dig it. Maxwell, Prince, some the The Neptunes or Black Eyed Peas.

Soul.

Alternative to what? Loud guitars and pounding drums?

Topical? Only if you consider braggodocio and party/sexual advance lyrics topical. That comprises the bulk of the lyrical content of any urban I hear on the radio.

Funny - hip hop's lyrical content has a lot of similarities with Rock (sex, drugs, and hip hop, anyone?), though I don't think we've ever heard much from Rock Stars about how well they can rap (and we continue to hear plenty of that from rappers).

I'm talking about what's not getting on radio, and the idea that it's not getting on radio because it's not braggadocio and sexual innuedo.

This is something I don't understand as well. Someone as topical and talented as Me'shell Ndegeocello has a hard time keeping a record deal while Kayne West dribbles on and on (all the way to the bank) about how he is the greatest artist ever...I just can't buy it...

Well, for one thing Me'shell is a little less commercial than Kayne. But I think the biggest reason is probably because Kayne is a male, and Me'shell is a female.

Guys always have an easier time of it in the music industry.

Some of my favorite hip hop doesn't have much more on its mind than a prom date... my favorite writers tend to be a little meatier (I'm a fan of early Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Elliot Smith) but I also embrace mindless pop when it's irresistable enough.

My favorite pop tune of last year (or was it the year before? Let's just make it in the last coupla years): "Shut Up" by Black Eyed Peas.

But my other favorite pop tune was quite a bit darker and a whole lot sadder: "Travelin' Soldier" by the Dixie Chicks.

They both kill me... in such very, very different ways.

[Hmmm... I seem to have drifted off topic... that's what happens when you get distracted and a 30 second answer gets done in parts over 10 minutes. Dixie Chicks... I think of them as sort of honorary hip hop.]

The topical arguement doesn't wash anymore then topical Pop, with few exceptions for both.

The lyric content, topical or not, is ruinous to the craft of songwriting but, B sides have always been pushed as art.

Turn on BTV and watch an hour's worth of popular songs, there will be none... that someone in ten years will want to re-cut....

Song crafting is an art and most of the releases these days are vapid of that....

Can people give specific examples of what they think is more topical rap music that's around today? I have a Rhapsody account, so I'd like to listen to some of it.

Yes, because it's the females who buy the dumb bloke stuff...

Les saint hip-hoppers have only one thing in mind, that is to steal my Lamborghini !

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Hip Hop is a lot of filler in my opinion. Don`t listen to it much but when I do, I have a hard time...

Of all the genres in music, I would say it has lots of potential to be so much more but its sort of at a stale point.

Need another Marvin Gaye - P. Didddy.