808's and Heartbreaks...

CAC’s
4bars

Let me start off saying that I’m excited for the Kanye album. I was schoolin one of my white homeboys today (yes it matters he’s white, he said “Go Go Gadget Flow” sucked and I think only a white dude could say that, haha) about how great of an artist Ye is and I started looking back at his albums. College Dropout was a CLASSIC album, but Late Registration was better. And Graduation, unless I’m completely wrong (which I doubt) is clearly his best work and should be considered as one of the best Hip Hop albums of all time. While I could take this post to talk about the people who only think some shit is good music if the rest of society isn’t hip to it yet, and once they do, that artist sucks (shout out to Getback track 2), I’ll leave you with this article on the Ye listening party.

http://newsroom.mtv.com/2008/10/15/kanye-west-and-50-naked-women-preview-808s-and-heartbreak-in-la/

So on with the post, I’ll try and keep it brief with the lengthy intro. In the past few years, Hip Hop artists have been involved with COUNTLESS products, commercials, events, and television shows and it has turned Hip Hop into the most popular musical genre on the planet. Naturally, with it being so popular, it has turned into just that, pop music. But what happens when the sponsors decide that gangster rapper #1 shouldn’t endorse their product? Is this blatant racism or is it simple economics?

The first case that comes to mind is the famous Ludacris-Pepsi fiasco which was spearheaded by the ever-informed and always on point Bill O’Reilly. And then there was Hov vs Cristal and before that it was Tommy Hilfiger vs Black People in general (that one was probably racism like a mf though, haha). Recently T.I. has fallen victim to the disassociation with “thugs”. “Swing Ya Rag”, a hot song on Clifford’s latest album, has a video but its been shelved because the Louis Vuitton and Gucci “rags” that are rapped about and portrayed in the video (haven’t seen the clip) are apparently not fit for the likes of T.I. and Swizz (SWIZZY!!) Beatz. Hmm, now is this a case of them not wanting a convicted felon to be associated with their product or because of the perceived audience that this will target, attract, and associate these high-end European clothing companies with? They claim that “infringement” issues were what provoked the stoppage but why would a clothing line be upset about free marketing and promotion? Not to mention brand recognition and an expansion of their consumer base. Now if they just don’t want these “rap guys” to wear and big-up their shit in a video, that’s cool, totally their prerogative; but I wanna know why.

http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=27147