Suit and tie rap that's cleaner than a bar of soap

Who’s Phony, Who’s Fake?
written by 4 Bars

I was talking to my boy the other night and he’s a musical cynic. What I mean is that he avoids any artist that is popular because he believes that they are ultimately created, molded, and driven by the corporate machine that is “The Man”. Some call them “suits” or the record execs but I feel what he’s saying.

Much of the music that we hear today, in any genre, is pre-determined by heads of record labels to fit a mold or a form but I feel like hip-hop may suffer from it the most. There is a box that the “suits” seem to put hip-hop in. Either you’re a thug, a “baller”, a former dope boy, or the newest “box” seems to be the hipster. Now, I’m not necessarily gonna put the hipsters in with the rest of em just yet, mostly because I feel like guys like Kid Cudi and Charles Hamilton are just doin them, but I fear that it is the next “thing” for the hip-hop execs to overdo and play out.

We all know that Officer Ricky used to be a C.O. and Ice-T used to be a break dancer but how many of our favorite artists are as “real” as they say?

Artists like Kanye, Outkast, and Jay have long since established themselves as originals. But artists like The Game, Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, and T.I. I feel like have lingering unanswered questions about them. How “gangsta” are any of these guys and how much of it simply bravado shown through their music? How many of them were drug “kingpins” and how many of them simply sold a little weed for a few months? I’m not judging these dudes or their past, I just wonder how much of what we see is them and how much has been “edited”. Art imitating life or vice versa?