http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/seattle-saves-hiphop-again/Content?oid=15874229 Comments On: Seattle Saves Hiphop, Again by Charles Mudede en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Tue, 21 May 2013 17:30:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by lot]]> Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:08:26 -0700 The Stranger Posted by WhateverIsayistrue]]> Sat, 02 Mar 2013 13:57:36 -0800 The Stranger
Look, rap in 1992 was roughly divided exactly as Charles divided them: The hippie-earnest-jazzy bucket that held ATCQ, Arrested Development, and much of the Tommy Boy stable; the gangbanging cinema verite of the LA crews; and their compadres on the East Coast who embraced their own form of militancy.

Meanwhile, the rap that was crossing over was, well, none of that. The first #1 rap single in the US? "Wild Thing" by Tone Loc. Vanilla Ice dominated 1990-91 radio. The media was more focused on 2 Live Crew than they were on NWA and Death Row Records. The hippie-earnest-jazzy guys would peek through with Digital Underground, Arrested Development, and (to a lesser extent) Naughty By Nature, but even then, hair metal still had more cache.

"Baby Got Back" did a number of things -- it finally crystallized a formula for making rap into pop; it finally got blacks and whites together around the idea that hip-hop and rap could transcend race (and seriously, as a college student in the summer of '92 there was nothing funnier than watching a bunch of white upper middle class kids going on about LA faces and Oakland booty); and it also was the final non-gangsta non-coastal hit rap song in this tripartite division of rap. The Chronic would come out that December, 39 Chambers the next year, and Arrested Development would be a TV show and an embarrassing #1 choice for the Pazz And Jop Poll.

But here's the other thing: Mix got absolutely pilloried by the rap community for the EXACT reasons the commenters above are ripping on Macklemore. He's too pop. He's not a good rapper. Anyone could sing about this. He's giving the Seattle scene a bad name. The only reason we look at him with pride now is because it's been 20 years.

I have no idea if Macklemore is going to be just a flash in the pan. I have no idea if he's going to finally get the hip-hop zeitgeist to look Northwest and see what a plethora of talent we have in the local scene. I hope for the best. But consider that 50 years ago, a flash in the pan band from the Northwest made a muddy recording of a Jamaican ballad that generated a huge amount of controversy... and also evangelized garage rock, the progenitor of American punk and the distant relative of the grunge that every other band in Seattle was pushing alongside Mix. And no one today would dare diss "Louie Louie," played into the ground as much as it has been.

I really hope this is the turning point in hip-hop. Charles is right -- it really has taken itself way too seriously. So maybe this is truly a bookend to "Baby Got Back" and we're going to see hip-hop try hard to be fun again, even though it's turned into an angry scold who wants it all to be real.

But it says something that Macklemore is absolutely killing in Australia right now. He sounds like the Hilltop Hoods' long-lost American cousin. Australian hip-hop sounds more like what that hippy-earnest-jazzy camp would sound like had they not fallen into obscurity with the coming of gangsta.
Posted by dw]]> Sat, 02 Feb 2013 13:23:19 -0800 The Stranger Posted by JLuck]]> Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:33:59 -0800 The Stranger Posted by TBne]]> Fri, 01 Feb 2013 14:02:47 -0800 The Stranger Posted by derek_erdman]]> Fri, 01 Feb 2013 04:11:26 -0800 The Stranger
Plenty of hip hop from the beginning through today doesn't wallow in the negative. That doesn't make it good, though it is what I prefer. Don't mistake your lack of hip hop history as the summation of hip hop. Just b/c Macklemore is the first rapper many of the hip hop uneducated PNW have heard that isn't about pimping, drugs, misogyny, violence doesn't mean it is unique, nor good. And you can talk about that stuff in a thoughtful, critical, yet funky way, i.e. "The Jungle," Public Enemy, the Roots, etc.

Not trying to hate on the guy. He does what he does cause he loves it and can support himself doing it while spreading good messages. Great for him. But anyone claiming Macklemore to be great is an ignorant motherlicker who needs a hip hop education. Egotrip is a good, broad starting point. http://www.egotripland.com/


Posted by maggotronix]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:29:50 -0800 The Stranger Posted by pat L]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:14:17 -0800 The Stranger Posted by TBne]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:11:52 -0800 The Stranger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhe-eYHQg…


Posted by maggotronix]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:11:23 -0800 The Stranger
Fun hip hop could happen in places other than Seattle and did before "Baby Got Back," as good as that song was. Seattle needs to stop sticking its' head so far up its' ass that it thinks it is some kind of outsider hip hop mecca that couldn't/doesn't exist elsewhere.

That said, Shabazz and all those affiliated cats are putting out some unique, nextish level shit.
Posted by maggotronix]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:48:55 -0800 The Stranger
S'okay, all you guys can be over there in the corner, talking amongst yerselves about the 'good ol days', while the other tens of millions of us will be having a good time with Mackles and his GREAT songs... silly us, lol...

Posted by merry]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:29:37 -0800 The Stranger Posted by nonotford]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:22:44 -0800 The Stranger Posted by redchapterjubilee]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2013 08:00:52 -0800 The Stranger
http://cloudtransit.wordpress.com/2013/0…
Posted by rap fan]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:02:41 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Chester Copperpot]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:11:07 -0800 The Stranger
Yup!
Posted by mister_fusspot]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:12:01 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Charles Mudede]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:05:51 -0800 The Stranger Posted by MK1]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:00:38 -0800 The Stranger Posted by bizzyb]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:58:05 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Chancematic]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:50:57 -0800 The Stranger
@11 I don't know where you're getting that assumption, because white people also participate in conspicuous consumption.
Posted by a cat using the internet]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:32:14 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Belly]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:32:06 -0800 The Stranger
That's the problem, it's POP. The rest of Seattle hiphop isn't all out-there shit like Shabazz Palaces. Dyme Def and Fresh Espresso ought to be getting play but they won't because of the permanently whack-ass direction popular rap has taken. Macklemore is popular because of a dopey pop-rap song and his actual rap is fucking lame.
Posted by The CHZA]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:38:28 -0800 The Stranger Posted by I'm 85 Years Old]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:20:50 -0800 The Stranger