RIP "rap is all guns and hoes"
 

Can we finally put to rest commentary on rap that involves a comparison to "guns and hoes"?

Common phrases:
-"I don't listen to rap it's all about bitches and hoes and money."
-"Artist 'x' is so refreshing because he doesn't rap about the standard bitches and hoes like the mainstream."
-"I only listen to underground because mainstream is all money and bling."

Why ^these phrases should be buried...
-If you don't listen to rap because you think it's all about bitches and hoes and money, then you have never given rap a chance in the first place. Women and money are common themes in rap, like all genres of music. So, while these topics may appear more common, they are far from the only items covered. If you truly want to give rap a chance, take the 12 seconds to research the thousands of artists who go more in depth than that.
-Artists no longer need to be praised for deviating from bitches and hoes in their lyrical content. Is it really all that surprising to hear a new track that talks about "real" topics? As many members of this site can attest, most rap fans' music library are comprised of hundreds or even thousands of tracks that fit into this category. So it may be refreshing to hear a new track that offers some quality lyrical content, but it is not some new, groundbreaking idea to talk current events, politics, love, life, etc... so please don't act like it is.
-The concept of underground and mainstream has become very convoluted with the onset of the internet and mass music sharing. Atmosphere, once considered a cool "underground" group by their 37 billion listeners, just had an album chart at #5 on the Billboard 200. For the most part, if you've heard of someone they probably aren't underground anymore. Beyond this, if you can still categorize a "mainstream" and an "underground"... money and bling is rampant in mainstream rap, and, guess what?, also exists in the underground. By the same token, thoughtful and insightful rap exists in both the underground and mainstream, albeit less common as it is harder to sell to the masses. Chances are your underground isn't underground, and it probably is not that much more lyrically thoughtful at its core than anything else.

RIP to phrases like "it's so refreshing to listen to underground rap artist 'xyz' that doesn't talk about the usual about bitches, hoes, money, drugs, bling, chains, guns, vaginas, crack rocks, strippers, making it rain like the mainstream does".... never utter them again!

stop the proceedings sir.

While I agree with you what will newbies to the rap genre have to say then if not oh i like so and so artist because they don't rap about guns and hoes?

What will the haters of rap genres have to say if they aren't allowed to scream these stereotypes from the top of their lungs?

The haters will just have to shut up and leave well enough alone like everyone else, I can't say I enjoy Black Metal very much but I don't rant about Satanism and the apparent evil that surrounded the members of the Norwegian scene in the early nineties...

haha it's good to have guilty pleasures though, I have loads of hell rell on my zune as well.

I don't mind if rappers want to branch out into new territory... as long as it's weed. Bitches, money, and weed. All other subject matter makes for boring hip hop. Stick to what you know.

Apart from the fact there's a difference from 'hos' and 'hoes', well put.

'Hoes' is a reference to marijuana horticulture.

gtfo stop lying lol

I have never heard that before

rap is all guns and hoes




RESURRECTION.

on the fourth day, "rap is all guns and hoes" was resurrected and all was good in the world

You'll never completely eradicate the stereotypes in rap music, because they are already way too ingrained in our minds, and you'll always have some rappers that do rap about guns and hos. The way I see it, lyrical content will be cyclical - we have had a long time now that has been majorly about the 'gangsta' lifestyle, with the guns and hos stuff.

But I wonder what happens in another 10 years? What happens when every rapper thats coming out wants to be like Mos Def, Common, Lupe Fiasco? I am almost certain that there will be a rapper who comes out, talking majorly about the guns and hoes, and the world will proclaim it as 'the re-birth of gangsta rap'.

I think those topics are more common in mainstream than underground, but I do agree that both forms of hip hop incorporate them into its music (it just varies from artist to artist). Early Eminem, back when he was considered "underground," would rap about those type of things in his music. But Public Enemy and Common (both mainstream hip hop artists) tend to tackle "better" subjects. I don't know. I'm not the most educated person when it comes to hip hop music, so I won't pretend that I know 100% about what I am talking about.

OMG...really?? Were critiquing the spelling of slang now?.... I dont see the problem with the content of rap. Most the content is the same as any music just more direct and offensive to some. Did Hendrix in his song "Hey Joe" not talk about having a gun and shooting his ol lady? Its in every music there is just about just in different forms. The only problem I have somewhat is the front some put on in what they rap about. Kind of like my preffered genre the Blues. How can you sing or write about it if youve never lived? Just doesnt seem near as genuine to me if I cant find any real relation between the rappers music and his lifestyle. One of the reasons I like Pac and Biggie. They stuck so close to what they rapped about it cost them their lives. I dont know there was always something going on that they were caught up in back when these two, and a lot of others from death row were getting big. Always some arrest story or casino fight or someone getting hung out the window of a 20 story building. Then you would hear about it in their music taunting and threating the other one about something that went down. What happened to that or am I just in the dark now a days? Or maybe they just dont get the publicity Biggie and Pac and several others got back then.

Ha ha, easily. In a second I would rap about anything that people wanted to hear even if it had nothing to do with my lifestyle. I wouldn't put it under my name, I would use some ****ty pseudonym and slap 'lil' or 'Dr' in front, make a few million, then 'fall off' the mainstream when I had enough money to live comfortably. I would then sit in my beach house and create music that is meaningful to me. 90% of the people listening to rap aren't performing background checks to see if slim shady actually murdered his guinea pig and stuck him in the microwave.

Thanks.

And, I actually meant the garden tool. Literally.

i find it really funny when Public Enemy first appeared on the scene and music writers were saying how rap developed a social consciousness

wasn't the founding father of rap, Gil-Scott Heron and his troubadours, The Last Poets, mainly rapping about society, especially black empowerment?

There needs to be a midwestern conservative rapper who sings about guns, and hoes.

A) because he firmly believes against gun control. 'Cuz America was built on Freedom.

B) His wife needs hoes to remove weeds from her garden.

Haha!

"I rep the 2nd amendment giving me the right to bear arms/
and for my wifey with her hoe out to tend the yards"

I actually laughed out loud at this. I'm surprised Weird Al hasn't done something like it yet.