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Friday, August 15, 2008

“The Game is to be sold, not to be told"


“What Is We Gon Do?”
written by 4 Bars

I’m watching “Game Over”, the true story of the movie Paid In Full, and at the beginning of the movie there are several random NY street cats and even an appearance by DJ Kay Slay in which he says the most potent quote of the DVD to me. He said that the rap game now is like WWF, “niggas are jumpin off the top turnbuckles….”

Slay’s words followed the same random streets cats speaking on how today’s rappers are imitating the drug dealers and talking about things they don’t have, that drug dealers in the 80s actually had. There is clear animosity, yet my question is, what do we do about it?

My immediate thoughts were of the southern rappers who really have no ties to the NY drug game that so vehemently proclaim to be “the biggest bosses” or other silly ass monikers.

“The Game is to be sold, not to be told” was the name of one of Snoop’s albums but also a quote used in this video to denounce today’s rappers and their fabricated fairy tales of the drug game and violent acts. I know we’ve discussed it a lot but I guess I was always under the impression that hood cats embraced this “coonery” when from this video, it seems as if they actually have a problem with the farce that is today’s hip hop artists. Not being an actual hood cat, I can’t speak for em directly, but I gotta think that I’m united with em on this front. I’ve always said I just want some authenticity, it makes me feel real good to know I’m not alone.

3 comments:

Mr. Hutson said...

Kay Slay's huge hypocrite. He's sick of the WWF cats, but his name is the drama king. Drama is for actors, man. He provides the turnbuckels for dudes to jump off of.

I don't know, man. It's funny when rappers talk about hating fakers and then drop a song claiming that they would do things they never would. No one in the industry is really tired of it. If you check a rapper's ipod or wish list of collabos, they're not tired of it. They just act tired so that we can call them "real," whatever that means anymore.

Anonymous said...

Music is an artform. Because of that you get a certain amount of fiction within the writing. Yeah, I'm sure some songs are based on actual events but most of it is metaphorical and symbolic and sometimes just outright fabrication. Because who wants to hear a song about waking up at 6 AM, working a full shift as a security guard at Walmart and going home to bed? or I sat behind this desk at Merryl Lynch all day. It was ill. The realest music of all time was Disco, cause they all sung about dancing and then went out and danced. Everything else uses much more imagination and thats why we enjoy it.

Anonymous said...

imagination is great, busta rhymes, red/method man, eminem were great at off the wall shit and makin up extravagant descriptions and pictures, and Big, Face, and Ghostface are great story tellers, but there's a difference between telling a story and telling everybody that your life is something that its not. Clearly there is exaggeration and embellishing, but pure fabrication is something totally different. Especially when you defend it as if your so called "life" depends upon it, trumping up drug and assault charges along the way, art is one thing, being a f'n fraud is another.

AB