From: dbidwa@sei.cmu.edu (Daniel Bidwa)
Subject: Re: Rap (Yes, you're still in soc.motss) (Re: Marky Mark
Organization: The Software Engineering Institute
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 19:42:52 GMT


ailsa%ailanth.uucp@wang.com (Ailsa N.T. Murphy) writes:

|> ...i like rap.  even when it is mysogynist and
|> homophobic.  (i don't like the particvular songs that are like that,
|> but i still like the genre.)  it's very real.  it talks about stuff i
|> can relate to, even though i am a white woman raised (supposedly)
|> middle class.  like what it's like being poor and living Poor (*).
|> like the fact that the songs mention having kids, wives, exes, etc.
|> like the anger at how society mistreats people.
|>
|> ...i like rap angry, edgy, political.  would a
|> correlation between rap and punk be reasonable?  i don't really knwo a
|> lot about punk culture, so i couldn't say, but it seems like there are
|> similarities.

Yup, there are a lot of similarities. The obvious example is the Beastie Boys,
who went from an obnoxious punk band to an obnoxious rap group (where
"obnoxious" is a statement of style, not of quality), but punk groups have
been pulling from the same sources as rap for a long time, for both style and
substance. Bands like the Bad Brains, Beefeater, and the Big Boys were using
funk (and, in the Bad Brains respect, reggae) long before bands like Living
Colour made it popular to mix funk and rock. Anyway, I think rap and punk are
both basically music for disaffected youth, so similarities shouldn't be
surprising. And every so often, the big companies notice that the music is
becoming popular, and there's a big flurry of corporate activity that
eventually dies down, and the music goes back underground (more or less).

Of course, "angry, edgy, political" describes a small section of almost all
types of music. It just rarely shows up in public.

|> point me in the right direction, and i'll acquire some
|> albums...

Well, lessee. As far as punk rock goes, there are a bunch of "important"
records that have recently been rereleased on CD, like Minor Threat (probably
one of the most influential hardcore bands ever), Negative Approach, and
Beefeater. All three of those CDs include pretty much everything the bands
ever released, and are all cheap (~$10). Bad Brains have a bunch of records
out; the best ones are the earliest ones (the ROIR tapes, which have been
rereleased on CD by In Effect under some other title; "Rock For Light", which
has marginally less raging version of some of the same songs; "The Youth Are
Getting Restless", which isn't very old, but is a live recording of a show
from 1986 or 87 that pretty much sums up the Bad Brains at their peak). 

In the rap arena, I've been listening to A Tribe Called Quest, Cypress Hill,
the Beastie Boys, and the Brand New Heavies. I imagine that Donald, or someone
else more fully immersed in the rap scene could point out some canonical
recordings. 

|> * note i am poor now, although not really part of the Poor culture
|> anymore.  and actually, i kinda miss it.  it's easier being really
|> poor when you have other people for support.




_____________________________________________________________________________
Dan Bidwa                             I believe nothing and in nothing.
dbidwa@sei.cmu.edu       !disclaim!   I believe everything and in everything.
Newsgroups: soc.motss,talk.politics.misc,ca.politics