So as you can see by the title, this is my first ever blog. I basically decided to start a blog to voice (type) my opinions so everyone can see. Whether it be something I see, hear and experience through this wonderful experience (though sometimes it can be just dreadful) we know as life, you will read about it and you're welcome to agree or even disagree with my views and comment.
Now that little introduction is out of the way, I will get into what is on my mind at the moment. A couple of days ago, I was in a record store (major chain which I simply choose not to name) and I came across these two guys talking about the state of Hip-Hop and where it went wrong and why. One of the guys said that it was because of P.Diddy that Hip-Hop went south to the shallow, uncreative state that we see it in now. The other person in the argument didn't really think anything was wrong with it and that the music is simply evolving to match the minds of the younger, more flashier youth of today compared to the more "rough, ruggged, and raw" mentality of the people in the late 80s-early 90s.
Now, I'm just looking through dvds to buy and not even looking or thinking about buying a music cd and they turn to me and ask me my opinion on the subject. After I commended the second guy for his views, I simply told him that the music evolving theory was only an effect of Hip-Hop seemingly going into the gutter. My opinion, is that there is one point in Hip-hop
s timeline, specifically one song that changed the music to what we know it now; "Killing Me Softly" by The Fugees. Now, I love The Fugees and I love "Killing Me Softly" like most people do and I might have a few (more like many) arguments against my opinion, but I feel, without that song, the genre as we know it to be could be different.
People (like those who like to read the credits inside the album booklet like me) should know that "Killing Me Softly" was a cover from Roberta Flack's version that came out in 1973, which was a big hit, but her version was actually a cover from "Killing Me Softly with His Song" the 1971 song composed by Charles Fox and Normal Gimbel (sung by Lori Lieberman). Anyway, the song (The Fugees version) showed many people in Hip-hop that you could make lots of money in the music business rapping if you had one major single. After, this song came out, you could see the effect on numerous artists that went from "rough, rugged and raw" to "clean, flash and all about the dough."
Just to sum it up for everyone, the impact of that song is that it seems to me that artists feel that they could make just one good song and add album filler so they could sell more (even though many people were buying even with those high cd prices back then. And now, because of the "lets make that hot single" mentality, I feel that artists in generally how to be creative and instead wanted to copy off of whats hot at that moment, which we see even more today. People are using the same beats, same samples, even down to the same lyrics (which is completely ridiculous and even more redundant.) Finally and the most important reason is, that I feel, like I know others feel the same way is that artists don't have that same passion for the music like they use to. It seems like they care more about the money and they flash things instead of what is really important; THE MUSIC.
That's right, the music is most important thing in any genre and to any artist, producer, composer, fan, and it even applies to the high-level execs. Without that solid base of creativity and passion, we, the listeners, end up hearing and seeing a product that in many cases will catch our attention for that quick second but when we go back into our lives, we probably won't even remember the title of that song that was heavily promoted and played over and over again on the radio and t.v..
My solution is this; Every artist no matter what genre of music you sing, rap,compose, produce, whatever, should make their own label so they dont have worry (fallback) on the fact that their record execs don't want creativity. After they have their own labels, then they should record and think to themselves "did this song/album demonstrate my full creativity?" If artists today did that, then lots of albums would be pushed back or never released. It's like that old saying, " less is more." So to all those artists that are being creative, keep striving, so that when that day comes and your number is called, you can step up to the plate and deliver that good music that we listeners need nowadays.
Well, that was enough of my little rant on the music biz. This blogging this is not that bad. I think that I can get used to this. Anyone have an argument, comment, or any RELEVANT info on this blog, do not be scared to comment me or send an email my way (I promise to respond to all emails and comments in due time.) Stay creative and more importantly true to yourselves no matter what you do.
Until My Next Post,
Reggie
