flow

probably the most indefinable aspect of the art of hip hop is the idea of flow that is used to define rappers or if not indefinable perhaps the least quantifiable this is also one of the most important pieces to the puzzle of successfully reinterpreting the genre into your own personal vehicle which is why it is so disheartening that so many of the same critics who will testify by my lyrical prowess which is undeniable will in the same sentence denigrate my ability to flow or will do something that is clearly intended to deny me the status as one of the greats because they are worried about being disagreed with too vehemently or because they have some valorized notion of artists that creates the idea that only the old greats were true greats and all contemporary artists are mere shadows of the former great ones and even i will admit that i might not be any sort of gift of gab but at least i am not a gimmick artist like twista and not only that but my ability to flow has been progressing with each album and there are intricacies which are by and large overlooked by people who think everything about my music is simply straightforward club oriented trashy pop or whatever which i can fully respect but i basically just wish that at some point people who are paid to do so would look deeper and inform the public thereof but bemoaning the critical state of the times will get one to no path that hasnt been tread a million times and i meant to talk about flow in general and the conundrum that it presents something that has been bothering me for a few years now and i guess i just wanted to ask for anyones opinions on what precisely it is since to me it seems to be something to the effect of an amalgamation of a rappers ability to maintain their percussive style of singing over a period of time but is also the particular tambre of the voice as well as any idiosyncracies of style that the rapper has and maybe even the uniformity present when someone raps over various dissimilar beats perhaps it is that constant that people speak about when they say someone has a good flow

the state of hip hop

for this second post i would like to talk about the relation of elitism to my fanbase i exist in a very strange place in the hip hop community it seems that there is no consensus to any criticism about me the members of the general public who hate songs by me who havent heard anything except lollipop and fireman and shit like that seem to be under the impression that i am just another rapper just some guy who sounds like every other ringtone rapper to them and who doesnt deserve all the praise given to him by the press whereas the hip hop heads who diss me tend to also complain about the praise i get and use this to somehow undermine my own strengths so i think that the weird thing about these two camps is that neither of them hate me so much as they hate my praise that comes from the greater majority of people and especially the people we call experts on the subject or professionals i guess either way the critical public and the critical elite agree with each other in that i am the greatest lyricist alive and yet there is a sizable subgroup within both of these groups that hate me for the very reason that the rest of their group is behind me in my artistic endeavour i think this is bullshit and can only wonder why it is that these supposed anti conformists even exist there is no reason to rebel for the sake of rebellion just because james dean was attractive and mythologized as a great actor doesnt mean that rebellion sans justification is a proper course of action from anyone that is like saying that objectivism is a feasible philosophy its nonsense as though solipsism was something other than something you ought to consider briefly to contextualize critical thinking speaking of which in nas new album he says break free of the matrix when he is spouting platitudes of empowerment and i must say that this is precisely what i was getting at with the james dean reference nas is unwittingly using the tools of a culture that he is trying to rebel against and in doing so is only revalidating it just like these haters who are attempting to denigrate my rap career and my latest album criticizing me for doing too many drugs while they spout off about how the best rappers of all time were biggie and pac like they were fucking sober or talking about how krsone is the best lyricist because even though they havent heard him they have heard that line being repeated hip hop is an art form and one that has yet to stagnate just because you prefer to accept talking points proffered by hip hop pundits doesnt mean your opinion will be considered relavent by anyone with any knowledge of the subject i am going to keep perfecting and moving forward the art form and maybe twenty years from now when someone better than me finally comes along your kids will be repeating the line that ive been promoting all along

lollipop

i know a lot of people love this song but there are a number of people with good reasoning skills who hate my new song lollipop and i would like to address this to them i truly believe this is one of the few times in life when the saying all naysayers be damned is a proper course of action to take because there is nothing in this song worthy of your hatred aside from the self assured elitist hatred of populist artistry i am not trying to call all of my detractors elitist but i would make it known that these people are unable to be reasoned with and that this causes me no qualms but as for the others who have a distaste for my song i would say that the most prevalent are those who may be offended by it which is to say those of us who have been conditioned to respond to any mention of fellatio with the idea that it inherently denotes some sort of sexist power dynamic which i very much disagree with in that this power dynamic is certainly easily arguable but nevertheless exists purely in metaphor i dont know about you but there have been plenty of times where i was getting head and it produced in me no desire to subjugate women or even a disdain for the woman in particular who performed the act the truth of the matter is that fellatio has a very distinct and confused place within our culture and that it is one of the sticky points which must be interrogated through roundabout means namely art and that is what i am trying to do albeit in such a way as to not preclude the average listener from both listening to and enjoying my music i have some of the undisputed best producers in the world behind me and have won numerous awards for my lyricism it seems to me that at this point in my career i might be able to create a work that plays with conventional understandings of broad cultural metaphors and not immediately decried as sexist lollipop is not exactly the culmination of art or anything but neither is it some thoughtless bit of anti feminist misogyny and i would just appreciate the openmindedness of my audience and hope that those who would level such heinous charges would not do them so lightly as to just name them as being true without proper analysis of the situation and the particularity and not just some broad generalization about the state of music or culture or rap or whatever next time i post i will aim my sights at another of these groups of haters thank you for reading