PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS in HIP HOP!

(from this pic, Iggy is a MONARCH BUTTERFLY MK-ULTRA viKKKtim....check that out!)

Hip Hop is now over 40 years old so don't go expecting peepo who are under 30 to be it's saving grace. Nah, it's up to US in OUR teen's & early 20's to get that SHIT right & finally! If ya look above, ya see ya FAVORITE FUNNY SOUNDING chiKKK from Australia (of all places) has came up with more to go! Today, WE talk about the problem & a possible solution if WE can manage to get OUR MINDS right. Dig in & see how WE mean.

the PROBLEM!

When asked about Forbes’ claim that hip-hop is run by a white, blond, Australian rapper named Iggy Azalea, incumbent queen bee Nicki Minaj laughed hysterically. The financial magazine may be qualified to calculate the $250 million valuation of Nicki’s Myx Fusions Moscato wine coolers, Nicki reasoned, but only the hip-hop community can bequeath the throne to Iggy.

One week later, Iggy Azalea became the only artist since the 1964 Beatles to have her first two singles occupy the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the fourth female emcee to hit No. 1 on the chart. Nicki has yet to claim the No. 1 spot.

However, the coronation of Iggy as one of the most successful rappers in history has occurred without much support from the imagined hip-hop community or from black people not invested in her brand. Funkmaster Flex has called her music “trash,” and Iggy’s hit singles have received little airplay on Top 40 “urban,” hip-hop radio stations. Reviews of her album The New Classic have been lukewarm at best. Even XXL, which made her the first female inductee of the magazine’s Freshman Class, admits that the music doesn’t live up to the hype.

If Iggy isn’t a great rapper, why is she so popular? Is it her whiteness? And is her reign part of a larger industry plot to whitewash black music with the likes of Justin Timberlake and Robin Thicke?

Iggy’s meteoric rise is due, in part, to the music industry’s willingness to promote only a handful of super-sexy female artists. The twerk videos, cake Instagrams and a track literally named “P--$y” is a recipe for profit in a hypersexist marketplace. It has worked so well that men and women are buying tickets to Iggy concerts with the sole purpose of feeling her booty.

But Iggy is also an heiress to white supremacy, the mix of unearned racial privilege and racial fetish that has historically made black music without black people big business. Her aspiration to be like the Rolling Stones, not just tie the Beatles’ record, should give pause: Does Iggy really want to emulate white rockers that plundered the music and swagger of black musicians like Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry?

White people do seem a little too excited about discovering twerking and the Harlem Shake. But before we form a black-culture militia to defend hip-hop as the last bastion of race music, it might be worth remembering that anxiety over white appropriation of hip-hop has been around for more than three decades.

In 1981 Debbie Harry’s “Rapture” magically became the first “rap” song to hit No. 1 on Billboard and the first rap song that MTV chose to air. In 1983 the plotline of Charlie Ahern’s classic film Wild Style was driven by white downtown art collectors who threatened to destroy the uptown graffiti scene. White emcees—besides the Beastie Boys and 3rd Bass—were banished to the underground in the early 1990s when Vanilla Ice almost became the “Elvis of rap.”

Everything about Eminem’s success, Harry Allen wrote (pdf), could be attributed to the power of hip-hop fused with the power of white supremacy.

Most post-Eminem talk about the problem of whiteness has been coded in conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati or the gay mafia. Hip-hop’s reigning philosopher Lord Jamar is currently using the metaphor of white artists being guests in the house of hip-hop. If Miley Cyrus and Macklemore keep drinking out of the milk carton and leaving their dirty socks on the floor, black people reserve the right to kick them out. We will see if Lord Jamar has the power to evict Justin Bieber for the nigger jokes.

Veteran emcee Scarface is using a gentrification analogy to describe a conspiracy to make “Elvis the face of hip-hop” within 20 years. In the musical equivalent of an urban renewal scam, white executives have turned the rap hood into an intellectual ghetto filled with buffoonery, violence and drugs. Once hip-hop is near death, they will bring in white hipster rappers to “revitalize” and “save” the culture. Black rappers, Scarface tweeted, could become the hip-hop generation’s Chuck Berrys.

If there is a conspiracy to whitewash hip-hop, Scarface is right to point the finger at the executives that ultimately profit from Macklemore being marketed as hip-hop’s Great White Hope, or New Zealand artist Lorde being allowed to sing that hip-hop is a bunch of black people ranting about gold teeth, Maybachs and diamonds. It is time to start “CEO beef” with the music executives and “culture vultures” behind the scenes, according to the outspoken Dame Dash.

Viewed within this broader history of whiteness and hip-hop, it should be no surprise that Iggy Azalea is being viewed with some distrust. We will know in 20 years if Scarface and other defenders of hip-hop are correct about the whitening of hip-hop and whether Iggy is really a carpetbagger intent on exploiting the culture.

Until then, the safest bet is that Iggy is the lighter counterpart to Nicki Minaj, an artist with an uncanny gift to make infectious “hip-pop” anthems for the summer and to profit from the racism and sexism of the music industry. Like Nicki, she will be laughing all the way to the bank. Depending on your point of view, that makes Iggy either the essence of real hip-hop hustle or more proof that hip-hop as meaningful black music is almost dead.*

 

Travis L. Gosa, Ph.D., is assistant professor of Africana studies at Cornell University, where his research focuses on racial inequality and African-American youths. He has written for Ebony, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Fox News and a number of academic journals.

In case ya MISSED that HEAT: http://black2afrika.blogspot.com/2014/07/madd-mary-eff-iggy-iggy-azalea-diss.html.

AND NOW a POSSIBLE SOLUTION for those GRINDING! 

The rapper Tech N9ne (aka Aaron Yates) is not only one of the most creative and talented artists in the music industry, he is also one of the most well-off financially.  Tech has a powerful and energetic style of music, presented in a series of albums going back for well over a decade. So, he’s been in the game as long as Jay-Z and any of your other favorite rappers, but he’s made his riches on his own terms, which is part of what makes him unique.

I heard about Tech’s music from Vigalantee (aka Roger Suggs), another popular artist out of the midwest.  According to Vigalantee, a lot of mainstream artists are actually afraid of performing with Tech due to the fear of being embarrassed by his lyrical skillset.  What really impressed me is that Tech has a very strong following and tours around the world, all because he was able to build a working business model for himself.  In that regard, he’s better off than nearly any other artist I can think of.

Tech shocked the world by popping up on the Hip Hop Cash Kings List from Forbes Magazine, which is typically reserved for artists who are getting major corporate backing.  Tech was actually ranked #18 on the list ($7.5 million), right ahead of the rapper 50 Cent ($7 million).   With each passing year, the 42-year old rapper is finding himself with a bigger bank account and he’s earning every penny.




 

When he was asked about his position on the list, Tech actually gave the kind of advice that one would expect from an intelligent financial manager, not a corporate buffoon.  But then again, when you’re managing your own money, your own shows, and your own brand, you can’t afford the blissful ignorance that comes with being a corporate slave.  You actually have to think like a businessman, which is a whole different level of consciousness.  Tech said that he doesn’t announce his income to the world, because that usually brings unwanted trouble.
“I wanted to keep it a secret. When people feel like you won the lottery, they call you. Cancel your Facebook and everything,” Tech said to Radio.com. “When you make that much money, I guess they have to report it. Forbes wants to say, ‘Look what this guy did. $7.5 million this year,’ and I was like, ‘Don’t say that’.”

 

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Tech also expressed pride in the fact that he was able to consistently increase his income without the help of a record label and without major media outlets supporting him.  In fact, he doesn’t get played on the radio or television in hardly any capacity, since most media outlets have deals with record labels, which give them the incentive to only promote specific artists.

It’s clear that mainstream media doesn’t promote rappers with the most talent, since much of the hip-hop on the radio is starting to sound like a 24-hour robotic infomercial.  In fact, I agree with

Damon Dash, who claims that the culture has been kidnapped by corporate vultures seeking to turn the power of hip-hop into a force for destruction of young black men, keeping us filling prison cells and caskets, while white guys walk away with all the money.
“I’m proud of it. That was bigger than the year before,” Tech said about his big financial haul this year. “We’re steadily on the incline, and it’s a blessing to be able to do it independent. Our own money, without major radio or video – still on the Forbes list.”

Financial Juneteenth lessons from this story:

1) To succeed in the music industry, you should probably start by studying business.  A person who knows marketing, distribution and enterpreneurship can go a lot further than someone who just knows how to sing, dance or rap.  The person with no business skill often spends their time feeling like a hooker on the corner, waiting for someone to pick them up and give them an opportunity.  But the person who knows business can create opportunities out of thin air.  All you have to be able to do is identify a need and produce a product to fill that need.  The biggest money in entertainment is made on the back-end, not on the field or stage.  That’s also where you get all the power.  If you’re interested in taking a class on how to start your own business, you can do so by clicking here.


2) Tech’s best advice from this interview is to keep your income level to yourself.  His decision to remain private about his financial situation is in direct contrast to an industry where artists are accustomed to bragging about how much money they have.  Bragging about your income level is not only a sign of insecurity, it also brings serious problems to your table.  Human beings naturally sniff out those who have the most resources at their disposal.  So, by boasting about how much extra money you have, you’re effectively asking everyone you know to come borrow money from you every chance they get.  This will increase your financial pressure and also make you look that much sillier when you end up in bankruptcy court.**

You can hear Tech discuss his financial strategies at this link.

 So........I provided a lotta info here today but in Part II, WE will ANALYZE what was said here bcuz I don't want NOBODY saying that I'm just TALKING about the PROBLEM with NO SOLUTIONS forthcoming so STAY TUNED to that b2a station! As usual, it's WAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                     

 * taken from http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/06/whites_in_hip_hop_why_music_by_iggy_azalea_and_others_is_so_popular_and.html.

** taken from http://financialjuneteenth.com/rapper-sells-his-own-records-and-made-the-forbes-list-his-advice-will-amaze-you/.

                                                        - to be continued -