As IF Times

link Former Oakland man, aspiring rapper, killed in shooting on Vegas Strip – San Jose Mercury News.

What’s the difference between a rapper and an aspiring rapper? Is there a threshold of earnings that has to be crossed?  Number of mentions on TMZ? Hits on YouTube? Value of exotic vehicles owned?  Maybe the criteria involves length of criminal rap sheet;  I wonder if that’s where the rap moniker comes from.

Is there a rap school where aspirants can learn their craft as ballet dancers and jugglers would?  And finally, is there an endless demand for essentially the same tribal bellicose beat tunes about violence, racism, misogyny and drugs?  Or is rap just the easiest of music to get into since all you need to do is chant words that generally rhyme? And not even real words; often the letter ‘g’ is eliminated altogether for convenience.  Just sayin’.

As is obvious by now, any artistic expression of rap also requires  the necessity of having the rap imagery and lifestyle.  Rappers can’t be wearing J Crew and Sperrys.  There has to be the standard garb of aviator shades, gold chains, earrings and the obligatory expensive vehicles and entourage of thugs and slutty women.   Most people know by now that this is a schtick.  Think back to the 60’s when all bands had the obligatory beatles haircut; the 70’s when big hair and moustaches were the standard costume.  In the 80’s it was the druggy/metal look which some relics like Steven Tyler insist on wearing to this day.  The fedex commercial in which a band manager complains about his guys carrying golf clubs instead of expressing hate and death hits it right on the head.

But the rap culture is a bit different.  Apparently, to have the look isn’t enough, the artists must have street cred.  So it’s good for business to get into the odd gang shoot out, crash the odd car, or beat up some of your competition.  Having a criminal record is even better.  Only then will the music have any legitimate meaning.  The music has to be about urban anger, overt racism and supposed disenfranchisement.  Seems to me if you can afford gold chains and drive fancy cars, there’s not that much to be angry about.  Here’s an oldie but goodie from 2004:

“…We gonna order take out and when we see the driver We gonna stick the 25 up in his face…… White boy in the wrong place at the right time Soon as the car door open up he mine We roll up quick and put the pistol to his nose By the look on his face he probably shitted in his clothes You know what this is, it’s a stick up Gimme the do’ from your pickups You ran into the wrong niggaz…” Artist: DEAD PREZ Song: HELL YEAH Album: RBG: Revolutionary But Gangsta Genre: Hip-hop Label: SONY Released: 2004

 

Not exactly “and I’d really love to see you tonight” or ” I want to hold your hand”.  On any given week, the media will have a story about some ‘rapper’ being shot, arrested or getting notoriety in some way.   It’s hard to understand why this is even news.  They could at least report the headline as it should be without the embellishment of the artist label.  Instead of:

” Aspiring rapper killed”, it should more accurately read,

” Pretend gangster killed by real gangster”

As for all those ‘aspiring’ rappers out there here’s an original rap composition:

Now this is a warning,

To one and all ya’s

Posin’ as a rap star

Yo’ sho to be fall ya’s

Yo think yo’ gon’ be all mean and gangsta

Someone bigga gonna kick yo’ assa

Tryin’ to build some street tough cred’

All’s ya gonna do is wind up dead.

 

 

link American Idol Vote Begins – Jacob Lusk, Casey Abrams Impress : People.com.

A few seasons back, the irascible Simon Cowell, arguably the real star of American Idol decided to move on.  Before that happened, the fomat changed to 4 judges and Ellen Degeneres was  inexplicably added to the show.   That was enough for yours truly, causing me to pronounce the show over.  http://asiftimes.com/2010/02/07/talent-must-be-in-short-supply/

Well this season’s crop of  talent has not only proved me wrong, it proved a number of other things as well.  First of which is that Simon was NOT the show, although he dominated the program since inception with his bitingly blunt comments.  The show was supposed to be about singing talent, but with Simon’s presence over the years, it was as much about watching unfolding car crashes and the show had an almost sadistic appeal.

When you look at the talent pool in this year’s edition of AI, the producers and the judges have to be given credit for bringing the best crop ever to the stage.  So, that’s credit to Steve Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and the only carry over judge, Randy Jackson.   They bring credibility due to their backgrounds and generally lucid comments.  The show has moved on to be a talent contest, albeit a contrived one, from being the Simon Cowell show.  I’m not sure what the logic was in bringing in Degeneres, but thankfully, that’s over. 

The success this season also demonstrates that the basic concept reasonates with the public and therefore the show is bigger than its nominal judges.  Karaoke is pretty popular in most of the world and this can be characterized as the Super Bowl of that.   The show is refocusing on the talent, not on the judges.  It’s as if Simon were never there.   Charlie Sheen should pay attention to that.

When you observe the roster of talent that is on display, it makes you wonder where these people were last year, or the year before.  It also should give one pause to think about the pool of talent in every other area of life which will emerge from the wings every year.  From science, to business, to sports, the pool of talent is deep enough down there to give optimism to all aspects of culture and human achievement.   You just can’t be pessimistic.

Now if they could only get rid of that irritating Ryan Seacrest.