carlos slim

5mo

when a genre enters the most popular point of its lifespan, there will always be a group of fans that show up listening to s*** in spite of the roots of that genre. and yes, these people will inevitably be fans of the most popular figures in that genre. It happened with rock. think about how many people love the beatles but never listen to little richard or ike turner. It’s just what happens when you hit peak mainstream

it’s part of the natural cycle of things and to blame whoever happened to be most popular in the genre when it reached its peak is weird. It wasn’t the Beatles intentions to ravage rock and roll and spawn an army of white “rock and roll” fans with no knowledge of the roots. I mean they loved little richard and ike turner and tried their best to put their fans on to all the legends of the genre. I think the same about Kanye. he didn’t mean to bring ruin to hip hop. it’s not really his fault that his career coincided with the peak and subsequent fall of rap’s popularity.

It is still true tho that a lot of the “fake fans” that came to hiphop during its peak with no regard for the genre’s history are also Kanye fans. I just don’t think that’s really his fault.

Ulyanov_

5mo

Kanye gentrified hip hop in the same way Democrats pushed the United States further right, if that makes sense. More subtle and obscure but arguably no less harmful. Serially invalidating the grassroots tenets of hip hop is the other side of the coin of limiting the perception of hip hop to caricatured gangster images and debauchery.

Dino

5mo

What the hell is going on itt

Valentine

5mo

Chief Keef did Finally Rich, Back From the Dead 2, Bang 2 and Almighty So after the remix and was banned from Chicago

he in fact, did not gentrify him lol, he perpetuated the new aspect of hiphop that was rising with black kids in his city

rather late

5mo

Dont Like remix is a crime against humanity
F***ing atrocious, zapping out all the energy

Jaman

5mo

they needed to consult with the hood of rotterdam first before releasing it

rather late

5mo

He’s right tho
Wish we could have a serious discussion about this

UncMC

5mo

Someone should make that domino meme

carlos slim

5mo

look i agree w u that kanye didn’t gentrify s*** bc kanye is just an artist. gentrification isn’t a centrally planned thing that one guy comes up with and carries out. its a large scale change in society that happens for a multitude of interlocking reasons. its just stupid to reduce it to “its just this one guy’s fault” i mean are we kids or something.

Elric

5mo

Beatle fans getting into older black music was a massive boon for black artists. Elvis helped Richard, Chuck etc get played on white radio for sure but there was still millions that never heard about them till the Beatles covered them.

Corporate Mór

5mo

Go on then

Bobby_96

5mo

I still think this is too ambiguous of a claim though.

Kanye worked with Chief Keef on GOOD's version of Don't Like and shouted out the Southside of Chicago on "All Day."

Can't Tell Me Nothin was meant to be a Jeezy song before Ye flipped it and kept it sounding hard.

In fact, Ye always had zero issues working with "street" rappers. He was never on that "I'm too good for these niggas" schtick like Tyler used to be on pre-Flower Boy.

Like I get the argument about MBDTF and Yeezus drawing in hipsters. KSG to a lesser extent too.

But I just don't see Ye actively s***ting on gangster rap or old school rap at all. He has called Jay or Nas his GOATs for the longest time just like other rappers. And he's a fan of 50 Cent too and flipped the "Banks told me go head and switch your style up" line off of In Da Club on Good Life.

Like I feel a lot of your argument is projection and not actually based on what Kanye has said or expressed.

Even Yeezus had conscious messages on New Slaves and Blood On The Leaves and that's supposed to be Ye's "whitest" album.

I dunno....I think you're going somewhere with this but it's just not a consistent argument at all. Even Fantano didn't f*** with Ye like that early on despite being a (former) mild fan.

rather late

5mo

Dont Like remix is a crime against humanity
F***ing atrocious, zapping out all the energy

Valentine

5mo

how is Kanye doing a hometown remix of an upcoming street rappers song, gentrification???

rather late

5mo

Dont Like remix is a crime against humanity
F***ing atrocious, zapping out all the energy

NothingIs

5mo

· edited

1 - he changed the beat so much the original producer spoke out against it

2 - he put the remix on his own album, which isn’t how remixes worked back then, essentially stealing credit for the song & introducing it to a predominately white / completely separate audience from Keef’s core fanbase

3 - Keef was already 3 hits in by then, he wasn’t just up & coming at that point

NothingIs

5mo

1 - he changed the beat so much the original producer spoke out against it

2 - he put the remix on his own album, which isn’t how remixes worked back then, essentially stealing credit for the song & introducing it to a predominately white / completely separate audience from Keef’s core fanbase

3 - Keef was already 3 hits in by then, he wasn’t just up & coming at that point

Ulyanov_

5mo

Kanye making a song with Keef is obviously not inherently "gentrifying" rap. It would be hard to say anybody making a single song, one way or the other, is truly in service of gentrifying rap, outside of egregious s*** like Tom MacDonald or something.

But how he went about doing it, coupled with his laundry list of other examples of this kinda cornball s***, at least helps give some legitimacy to the argument that he has at points played the role of contributing to the gentrification of hip hop.

carlos slim

5mo

just imagine kanye fans in China. like think abt that. there are enough people in china who listen to kanye for him to have toured there. and how many of them do you think know who Q-tip is?

it’s ridiculous to act like we should be mad at kanye just bc he became an international pop star and brought his brand of hiphop to places and people that didn’t know or care for the history. it kinda sucks that part of a genre’s life cycle is getting so popular that it gets diluted and falls off, but that’s life. u can’t blame kanye for the inconveniences of life.