Is Music Addiction Taking Over Our Lives?

[Cyrus]

Struggle with what!? Are you joking me!

I will stick to my mid 90's rap thank you. No beastie boy-esque music for me.

RUN DMC is cool though.

See, they had good lyrics man.

The name is Run my son, number one for fun!

And I do not listen to rap for the cursing, but I enjoy the cursing in rap.

 

[mattmns]

Run DMC is good!

I am still wondering about these struggles though; I can see a few of them with a few different artists, but not many. Maybe it is because I have not listened to 90s rap in months, that I forgot about it. I am listening to Illmatic right now though, and I will listen to some more 90s the next few days, maybe I will see it.

 

[Cyrus]

Illmatic, good. Finally, your getting it.

Remember, you got the Presidents to represent me, say what!?

Straight up sh!t is real and any day could be your last in the jungle
Get murdered on the humble, guns'll blast, n****z tumble
The corners is the hot spot, full of mad criminals
who don't care, guzzlin beers, we all stare
at the out-of-towners (Ay, yo, yo, who that?) They better break North
before we get the four pounders, and take their face off
The streets is filled with undercovers, homicide chasin brothers
The D.A.'s on the roof, tryin to, watch us and knock us
And killer coppers, even come through in helicopters
I drink a little vodka, spark a L and hold a Glock for
the fronters, wannabe ill n*****z and spot runners
Thinkin it can't happen til I, trap em and clap em
and leave em done, won't even run about Gods
I don't believe in none of that sh!t, your facts are backwards
Nas is a rebel of the street corner
Pullin a Tec out the dresser, police got me under pressure

How do you not see struggle?

Want more struggle, listen to any Common CD. Listen to Be.

 

[mattmns]

That was the last song I just heard (now It Ain't Hard to Tell). As for Common, I have never listened to him; heard good things though. I will have to take a look at Be.

edit.. Ah crap, I am listening to Stillmatic now. Do you think Stillmatic is good? I never really liked it. Ether is awesome though.

 

[Cyrus]

You should listen to Commons album Be:

The very last song I like. The end is sung by an old guy, 'pop's, where he recites a poem. It's great.

Commons albums have an old feel to them. They are very well made.

['POPS']
Be, be here, be there, be that, be this
Be greatful for life, be greatful to life
Be gleeful everyday, for bein the best swimmer among 500,000
Be-nign, be you, be mom's mean pie, be little black sambo With bad hair
Be aware of what a lynch is, Be, be boundless energy
Be a four star ghetto general, be no one except I
Be a strong academic student, be an A student in sociology
Be food for thought to the growin mind, be the author of your own horoscope
Be invited, be long-living, be forgiving, be not forgetful
Be a proud run, only to return to fight another day
Be peaceful if possible, but justice in ways (?)
Be high when you low, be on time but knowin to go
Be cautious of the road to college, takin a detour through vietnam or the middle east
Be absent of wars at any past or present fought amongst themselves
Be visual of foreclosure over your shoulder while beggin
A nation built on free labor for reperation, Be a cartopogropher
Be a map maker, be able to find afro-american man
search thoroughly it may be close to black man
Be ammended 5/5ths, be ammended 5/5ths human
Be the owner of more land than is set aside for wild life
Be cupid, to world government
Be found among the truth, lost tribe
Be at full strength when walking through the valley
Be not foolish as tender 18 of the mountain tops
Be a brilliant soul, sparklin in the galaxy while walkin on earth
Be loved by God as much as God loved Ghandi and Martin Luther King
Be that last one of 144,000, be the resident of that twelfth house
Be... eternal!

 

[mattmns]

I just listened to some of Common's stuff on iTunes, so I am now an expert on his stuff, and I can say he's not that good. Be sounded wack as hell, it sounds to Kanye-ish, even the rhymes (and Kanye cannot write Rhymes). However, Like Water for Chocalate sounded much better, I think I may look at that instead. For now, I think I will listen to some Ultramagnetic

 

[Cyrus]

You have no taste, why do I talk to you?


Kanye produced it...the rymes are Commons.

 

[mattmns]

I was making a comparison... I was saying that the rhymes on Be sounded Kanye-ish, and that Kanye cannot rhyme, therefore Common cannot rhyme, at least from what I saw on Be. For example, the song The Corner, that is pure crap right there (the production, the lyrics, his "flow")

 

[Cyrus]

Common can't rhyme?

Why don't you go look up his lyrics and read what he's saying before making any more of those comments...

Unless you still think rymes like, my name is tad and I am really rad, its 1980's and my style is cool so stay in school while i rock da mike....are creative...

pssblackblackfft. Are you REALLY going to say common can't ryme?

Wow, I'm done with this discussion.

 

[mattmns]

Look up lyrics? Lyrics is only a little part of rhyming, you need to be able to deliver the rhymes you write.

Common, The Corner:

Memories on corners with the fo's and the mo's
Walk to the store for the rose, talking straightforward to hoes
Got uncles that smoke, and some put blow up they nose
To cope with the lows, the wind is cold and it blows
In they socks and they soles, niggaz holdin' they rolls
Corners leave souls opened and closed, hopin' for mo' What is this crap?

"In they socks" ? First Common needs to learn how to talk, then he can learn how to write, and then if he's got that down, he can try and make a song.

 

[Cyrus]

I think were done here, you have established that you don't have any taste.

Learn how to talk? Do you think any rap album is in proper english? Give me a break...

You were done your last post. Adios.

 

[Pengwuino]

Thanks for ruining my thread cyrus

 

[JamesU]

good job cyrus

 

[Cyrus]

Get lost pengwino, the grown ups are talking.

Thank you Yomamma, always a pleasure talking to you as usual.

 

[mattmns]

Rap albums in English? Yeah I know of quite a few, maybe not the crap that you listen to, but what I hear is pure English. None of this crap like Kanye, or Common, where you add some sound to the end of a word to make it rhyme. For example, the above Common song, or that Kanye song, Through the Wire, (izzurt, lmao! ).

 

[Cyrus]

CRAP!? You wish you had taste as refined as me!

It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you
Without a strong rhyme to step to
Think of how many weak shows you slept through
Time's up, I'm sorry I kept you
Thinking of this, you keep repeating you miss
The rhymes from the microphone soloist
And you sit by the radio, hand on the dial, soon
As you hear it, pump up the volume
Dance with the speaker 'till you hear it blow,
Then plug in the headphone 'cause here it go
It's a 4 letter word when it's heard, it control
your body to dance (You got it) soul,
Ditects the tempo like a red alert
Reaches your reflex, so let it work
When this is playing, you can't get stuck with
The steps, so get set and I'm a still come up with
A gift to be swift, follow the leader, the rhyme will go
Def wit the record that was mixed a long time ago
It can be done but only I can do it
For those that can dance and clap your hands to it
I start to think and then I sink
Into the paper like I was ink
When I'm writing, I'm trapped in between the lines,
I escape when I finish the rhyme...
I got soul

That is the CORNIEST lyrics I ever heard in my life man.

PUMP UP THE VOLUME!? ?!

YOU CALL THAT CREATIVE!?

Granted, that might have been for 1980, but this ant 1980!

YOUR NUTS MAN!

 

[Cyrus]

Here, some common lyrics for you:

Night Blows, Stoves don't work, Hoes at work
A warrior, so I wear 'em on my shirt
Wish I was free as Che was,I spend a day buzzed
Trippin on heights, wishin for nights in different flavors
The age of Kane and Big Daddy,shown by the caddies
Uncles named Larry, that never really grabbed me
My mother gave birth but she really never had me
Left to the hood to play daddy
Raised by niggaz named Butch through the bay bay
With waists so they weigh they status on the streets
License plates that say they, motto This is Chicago in the hay day
Similiar to Good Times, I guess that I was Jay Jay
A skinny nigga, young girls with penny figures
So many niggaz, stacked upon each other
It's the black upon each other that we love so much
Wonder how many of us, these drugs going to touch
Used to gangbang, ain't really thug that much
Rather have some thick broads then the dutch to clutch
Went to school in Baton Rouge for a couple of years
My college career got downed with a couple of beers
Came back home, now I got to pay back loans
Same nigga, same block, same **** they own
Only thing different, quicker, they click that chrome
In my defense, yo I had to hit that zone
Man to man, I'm good workin with my hands
My generation never understood workin for the man
And, of bein broke I ain't a fan
Now I stand in the same spot, as my old man
My life I planned not to be on this corner
I still want to see California
But this is my world

[Verse 2]
Life and death law around us
Four pounds and pounds a verb from out of towners
It's hard to stay grounded
We stay high, that's why old folks down us
Lost, nobody found us, the force that sorrounds us
Ain't with us, they get us on the ground and hit us
We paint pictures of the chains under their names and scriptures
Removed from earth, only to return through birth
Knew this girl sellin her body, wish she knew what it was worth.
Between God and trash, lookin in every car that pass
With a walk that suggests head, to milk niggaz she was breastfed
She know dairy so she say cheese to get bread
In the area where it's more weaves and less dreads
Kinda scary, amongst theives and base-heads
Said it was her toes, but I could tell her soul hurt
She was colder (?), growin up she got to know hurt
very well in a world where self hate is overt
Her step-father that he was aite, so her mother he striked
she got to like like minded niggaz, who liked crimes and figures
Doin white lines and liquor, see hard times had kicked her
In the ass, it used to be thicker
Life is fast, some choose to be quicker
I remember in high school she had a passion to sing
Now she see herself in a casket in dreams
These are the children of crack and rap, blacks done lack
Self-esteem, yo we forgot the dream
On our jeffersons y'all but we forgot the theme
In the Chi, we even rootin for a garbage team
This queen never seen herself on this Corner
She still want to see California
But this is her world

Wow, shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh please stop talking please your killing me!

Its a song about the struggle of living in the ghetto. Not some mindless dribble about pumping up "volume"

uuuuuuuuuuuoooooooooooo pump up the volume, that really means something.

 

[mattmns]

Hell of a lot more creative than the typical, I live in the ghetto, people get killed by guns, my friends do drugs, girls are prositutes, ...

Common wishes he could write and deliver rhymes like Rakim.

I AM NUTS? ROFL Let us see what Common has to say about Rakim.

"I knew he [Rakim] was the best on the written side, but he was ripping it on the freestyle. I was like, 'Man, this is the reason I'm rapping.' For real. Rakim, when he made Paid in Full, it was something about his demeanor and the way he carried hip-hop. I was like, 'I want to be that.' Rakim is usually the unseen MC. For him to be there and open, that was one of my great moments."

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1534034/06092006/rakim.jhtml

 

[Cyrus]

I don't care what he has to say.

You think that rap about life in the Ghetto is not rap? Man, you are CLUELESS. Its an expression. If you live in those conditions, that's what you will express yourself about, not "pumping up volume".....lameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[mattmns]

You don't care about what he has to say? You just quoted him like 2 times rofl!

I never said Ghetto life is not rap, I said it is not creative anymore. I am tired of hearing the same old crap. Nas, Pac, Big, many have done it already, quite good I might add, these new rappers need to find a new style! I don't need to hear the same old story about drugs, prostitutes, and crime, find something new to rap about.

As for pumping up the volume, whenever Rakim is playing, I will always pump up the volume.
All they can go get is me a glass of Moet
A hard time, sip your juice and watch a smooth poet
I take 7 MC's put em in a line
And add 7 more brothas who think they can rhyme
Well, it'll take 7 more before I go for mine
And that's 21 MC's ate up at the same time
Easy does it, do it easy, that's what I'm doin
No fessin, no messin around, no chewin
No robbin, no buyin, bitin, why bother
This slob'll stop tryin fightin to follow
My unusual style will confuse you a while
If I was water, I flow in the Nile
So many rhymes you won't have time to go for your's
Just because of a cause I have to pause
Right after tonight is when I prepare
To catch another sucka duck MC out there
Cos my strategy has to be tragedy, catastrophe
And after this you'll call me your majesty
My melody...

 

[Cyrus]

And what should they rap about then? How great life is in the Ghetto?

Why on Earth are you even talking about Kanye west and his use of the word izzert? Common does not do stuff like that in his rap.

If you want to talk about common, then talk about common.

I am not talking about Kanye west, I don't like Kanye. Hes a good producer, not a rapper.

 

[JamesU]

I'm pretty sure that rap was originally supposed to revolve around life in the ghettoes

 

[mattmns]

They can rap about whatever the hell they want, I'm just saying the ghetto idea is played out already.

edit... rofl, yomamma, you are as bad as Cyrus, you both know need to listen to some original rap (read: 80s). Rap was all about being better than the "sucker" MCs. It was about being cocky, having fun.

 

[Cyrus]

Unless you actually live in the Ghetto and its a part of your life. Which is why you rap about it because your rap has MEANING to it. It's not some cheesy rhyme to sell to clubs and dance to.

Edit: No, he is just that good. Good job Yomama, keep up the good work.

 

[JamesU]

I don't listen to rap mattmns, I was just saying...

 

[mattmns]

Life in the ghetto is played out, it is the same old story. Hell, KRS-One was homeless, lived in shelters in the Bronx, and when he made Criminal Minded back in 86-87 you didn't hear him whining about that crap. He didn't go around getting high like Common, he educated himself at the library.

edit... If you don't listen to rap, why are you commenting on it yomamma ... ?

 

[JamesU]

because this argument is pointless...an attemt to end you people saying the same old things over and over ;)

 

[mattmns]

True it is quite pointless. I'm just tired of the "ghetto."

 

[Cyrus]

Life in the ghetto is played out, it is the same old story. Hell, KRS-One was homeless, lived in shelters in the Bronx, and when he made Criminal Minded back in 86-87 you didn't hear him whining about that crap. He didn't go around getting high like Common, he educated himself at the library.

edit... If you don't listen to rap, why are you commenting on it yomamma ... ?

What, who said common goes around getting high? Do you even have a clue what common is about?

He is considered "positive" rap.

You are arguing from an ignorant point of view!

You need to stop man, seriously. Your just saying things now.

If you want to listen to people outsmart each other, then you don't listen to rap, listen to freestyle battles that's not what rap is about (necessarily).

 

[mattmns]

In the lyrics you posted...
-------------
Life and death law around us
Four pounds and pounds a verb from out of towners
It's hard to stay grounded
We stay high, that's why old folks down us
-------------

Maybe I misunderstood what he was saying.

 

[Cyrus]

Read some more of his lyrics

{Common}
After bein' 25, you know, just trying to survive in the world
Bout to have a little boy or baby girl. Who knows?
Anyway, just when you start gettin that little age and experience to you
You start thinkin about stuff...tryin to make the right moves
So bust it out, this is what I was thinkin, check it

Yo, the education of the Lon-chicka-Lonnie Lynn
Began, began with time
Bein my bloodline is one with the divine
In time brotha, you will discover the light
Some say that God is Black and the Devil's White
Well, the Devil is wrong and God is what's right
I fight, with myself in the ring of doubt and fear
The rain ain't gone, but I can still see clear
As a child, given religion with no answer to why
Just told believe in Jesus because for me he did die
Curiosity killed the catechism
Understanding and wisdom became the rhythm that I played to
And became a slave to master self
A rich man is one with knowledge, happiness and his health
My mind had dealt with the books of Zen, Tao the lessons
Koran and the Bible, to me they all vital
And got truth within 'em, got to read them boys
You just can't skim 'em, different branches of belief
But one root that stem 'em, but people of the venom try to trim 'em
And use religion as an emblem
When it should be a natural way of life
Who am I or they to say to whom you pray ain't right
That's who got you doing right and got you this far
Whether you say "in Jesus name" or "Al hum du'Allah"
Long as you know it's a bein' that's supreme to you
You let that show towards others in the things you do
Cuz when the trumpets blowin, 24 elders surround the throne
Only 144,000 gon get home
Only 144,000 gon get home
Only 144,000 gon get it baby

Chorus: Cee-Lo

I've lived and I've learned
I have taken and I've earned
I have laughed, I've cried
I have failed and I have tried
Sunshine, pouring rain
found joy through all my pain
I just want to be happy with being me

{Cee-Lo}
Let me voice my concern
So many of my fellow brothers have given themselves a title
That their actions didn't earn
Our ignorance is in the same breath as our innocence
Subconciously, seeking to find an impressionable mind to convince
I've finally come to the realization why Black people in the worse place
Cuz it's hard to correct yourself when you don't know
Who you are in the first place
So I try to find the clue in you
But evidently, White folks know more Black history than we do
Why're we bein' lied to? I ain't know our history was purposely hidden
Damn, somethin' in me want to know who I am
So I began my search, my journey started in church
It gave my heartache relief when I started to understand belief
Hustlin was like a gift spent my share of time in the streets
Taught me survival from this evil I'm just going to have to deal with
And I felt like a fool when I tried to learn it in school
It almost seemed like a rehearsal when the only
Science and math are universal
Takin elder advice, read the Bible, the Koran
Searched scrolls from the Hebrew Israelites
Hold on, this ain't right, Jesus wasn't White
Some leads were granted with insight
and it's all in the plan, but it took me some time to overstand
He still created with the imperfection of man
So, with followin' I disagree
By no means have I forgotten or forgiven what's been done to me but
I do know the Devil ain't no White man, the Devil's a spiritual mind
That's color blind, there's evil White folk and evil niggas
You gon surely find there's no positivity without negativity
But one side you going to have to choose
Any chance to speak I refuse to misuse
So how can you call yourself God when you let a worldly possession
become an obsession and the way you write your rhymes and
Can't follow your lesson
If a seed's sown, you make sure it's known, you make sure it's grown
If you God, then save your own, don't mentally enslave your own
If you God, then save your own, don't mentally enslave your own
If you God, then save your own, don't mentally enslave your own

Well, I've lived and I've learned
I've taken and I've earned
I have laughed, I have cried
I failed and I have tried
Sunshine, pourin rain
I found joy through my pain
Just want to be happy...bein me
Bein me

And stop saying things that are NONSENSE MAN!

 

[Cyrus]

In the lyrics you posted...
-------------
Life and death law around us
Four pounds and pounds a verb from out of towners
It's hard to stay grounded
We stay high, that's why old folks down us
-------------

Maybe I misunderstood what he was saying.

What, you think every rapper does what they rap? Give me a break.

 

[mattmns]

Well who is to say that he is positive then, because he raps things that may be positive (as you said, "you think every rapper does what they rap? Give me a break.")

 

[Cyrus]

...

I am done, bye bye.

 

[Cyrus]

Well who is to say that he is positive then, because he raps things that may be positive (as you said, "you think every rapper does what they rap? Give me a break.")

And BTW WE does not mean him. WE means young black people.

so yea, you did misunderstand him.