Rap music isn’t supposed to show a sugarcoated reflection of life

Oh yea…well…I admit it: I never really liked Black Eyed Peas. I always considered them -besides Will Smith- as the clowns in the rap music industry. Those people are like the worst thing that happened to hip hop in my opinion. In fact, I don’t even consider them as hip hop.
People who read me on a regular basis perfectly know that it is not in my habits to pick on artists I don’t like. I spend most of my time writing about artists that I really dig.
However, William Adams, the leader of Black Eyed Peas made some real stupid statements regarding hip hop and I would like to address them, because I strongly disagree with what he said.
William Adams made the following statements:
« We make music, when you compare it to today’s standards of what hip hop is. Don’t even call it that, ‘cause that’s like an insult.
Today’s hip hop is just angry, negative music that just makes black people look bad. Quote me. »
William Adams, XXL, July 2006
Mr Adams, you claim to make hip hop music? Your music sounds rather pop, but doesn’t resemble anything hip hop, whether old school or new school.
You music doesn’t have any flavor as far as I am concerned. It is just some mixture of soft words that would please little suburban 7 year old girls and boys who still believe in Santa Claus and who live in a bubblegum world. Besides the thing you call « music », you and your group members look like a bunch of clowns. That’s the very truth.
Yes, you are right: hip hop is angry and negative, most of the time. But denying the negativity in hip hop is like denying its roots. Hip hop came from black people’s justified anger against a corporate government that left them homeless in the Bronx due to an inhuman housing policy.
Ghetto life is violent and people get killed on the block every day. That’s reality. Most people survive thanks to their hustle.
Rap music and gangsta rap in particular, are the pure reflection of what happens in the ghetto every day.
First of all, talking about music in general: music is supposed to express feelings. Believe me, there is a great panel of feelings a human being goes through during his life. It can be joy, anger, a euphoric state of mind, desperation, loneliness etc etc…
Why would we summarize the music to an only sugarcoated world in which everything is perfect?
Mr Williams, please stop being such an hypocrite. Stop shitting on rap music when your music cannot even get called that.
Why would I consider that rap music gives a bad image of black men when it is just a way of expressing themselves about the hard conditions of living in the hood?
Real rap music coming from talented artists is beautiful. I happen to enjoy a good lyrical content, no matter if it is negative or not. Rap music is poetry and poets are not supposed to express only good feelings.
I happen to like raw raps from the hoods with some good instrumentals and dope ass beats. That’s REAL rap to me, unlike the sugarcoated thing coming from you and your fellows that you dare to call « hip hop. »
Get a moment of clarity and envision- even for a minute- how much boring soft hip hop can be for a hardcore rap fan.
Copyright © 2006 by Isabelle Esling
All Rights Reserved