As a strong black woman, I’m kind of pissed that we lost all those talented female lyricists and R&B singers who got Thanos snapped out of existence in the late 90s because they didn’t want to sell sex. It makes me want to slap a bitch for calling it “empowerment”…
At least my inner black woman is angry af because of that.
The music industry is garbage, pure garbage. Sony and Universal execs have a special place in hell.
all those talented female lyricists and R&B singers who got Thanos snapped out of existence in the late 90s because they didn’t want to sell sex
I dont know much about 90s music😅, could you please share some of those lyricists and singers (or suggest any of their songs)? I’m interested in listening to some of their songs :)
Kinda sad that I wasn’t much aware of this issue…
…I can’t. You can find them on various features, with among others De La Soul, but the point is they left. You’d have to amass the amount of hip-hop music that I have and draw a timeline where you can see them being phased out.
It’s around the time LL Cool J turned into a sex symbol and when De La had to “add some badass to perlong their life over the drum.”
One of these days I want to do the whole research route, but just so I can juxtapose it to country - which also suffered the same fate, only a half a century earlier.
Capitalism is a slow crawl to mediocrity and exploitation. No culture can really survive it.
I agree with the music industry problems. Luckily I have found some great hip hop and country recently.
I’ve been thinking lately about the industrialization of music. Used to be before the gramophone you’d play music in your house. Sometimes you’d be bad. And everyone was fine with it. We just did it to enjoy it. Sometimes you and your neighbors would go to that one barn everyone was gathering in where the best musicians in town would play. They were your neighbors and friends. But now we don’t know our musicians. We don’t make music. We just consume it. I think we need to reclaim music. I think everyone should download DAWs and just… Fucking… Suck. And share their suck with friends and family. What you produce doesn’t have to be polished, or good, it just needs to be tour own.
I buy random instruments at thrift stores and I would HIGHLY recommend folks try it out. Pick up a shitty First Act guitar, or some bongos that were originally sold as a souvenir, or even just a cheapo plastic recorder. Just having a musical instrument or two around the house is a special thing, especially if it’s a cheap one you would let any random guest fuck around with.
I met this guy when I was a teenager and I’ll never forget the first time I saw his house. His living room was full of instruments. 8 and 12 string guitars, pan flutes, cedar flutes, loads of little percussion things, and the drums… That’s how I learned I’m a percussion guy!
He only “knew how” to play a few things, but he would noodle on anything. They were all there primarily for guests, and moreso for the ones who had never even played an instrument before.
Music is absolutely one of those things you can just fuck around with to have fun, and then accidentally end up being really good at.
That’s amazing, though I’m not sure people living on the other side of my walls would appreciate it.
The music industry is garbage, pure garbage. Sony and Universal execs have a special place in hell.
Modern labels have shamelessly sampled music from other culture, without understanding the significance, and that’s truly pathetic.
One such song I came across was from Travis Scott (I think?), which was sampled from a song made by Bhakti reformists, who, way before the era of colonialism in India, spoke against brahmanism, casteism, elitism and women’s right, in the 7-8th century in India. And the lyrics? Totally the opposite of what’s in the sample - objectifying women like replaceable toys.
They also did the same to the Italian anti-fascist song “Bella Ciao”. Now it’s a stupid pop song, and people think that this is some random, catchy stuff that is played in the carnival.
