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.