Even as out of touch with what's popular today as I am, I realize that, these days, it's not unusual for a rap album to top the charts... and, to that end, I see that hip hop "artist" Lil Wayne had 2008's best-selling album, an opus entitled "Tha Carter III". Now, allow me to backtrack for a moment... I grew up in the 80's, listening to rap music at a time when most suburban white kids didn't listen to rap music. Amongst my favorites were Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie and the rest of Marley Marl's Juice Crew All-Stars, Eric B. and Rakim, EPMD, Whodini, PE, A Tribe Called Quest, LONS, Boogie Down Productions, Kool Moe Dee, LL... and then there were groups such as NWA, 2 Live Crew, etc... the stuff I could never let my parents hear. I was a huge fan of rap, and I still enjoy those artists to this day, however, I cannot stand, more or less, anything that's been released in the last decade plus. I contend that my tastes haven't changed, rather the genre as a whole has gone down the crapper. Having made this assertion, I must acknowledge one thing about hip hop that hasn't changed... the nature of most rap lyrics: extremely profane, violent, pro-substance abuse, misogynistic and homophobic. It astonishes me that as rap has entered the mainstream, and arguably become the most popular manner of music today, the degree of all variety of vulgarity inherent to the genre has not been toned down at all... it is even seemingly flaunted. This is, of course, the observation of someone admittedly on the outside looking in, and for this reason, I thought I would, using the marvelous medium of the world wide web, present some lyrics from the songs of 2008's top-selling album to see if they back up my claim. Let's see what we have here...
From the track "3 Peat":
A fuckin right hoe I might crazy go on these niggas I don't give a motherfuck Run up in a nigga house and shoot his grandmother up what! What I don't give a motherfuck get cha baby kidnapped And ya baby motherfuck It's tha Carter 3 bitch better put ya supper up Hollygrove I throw it up like I'm tryna lose my gut Fuck is up beat him up like a million uppercuts Got a million duffeled up for the fuck of it Shit get on my level you can't get on my level You would need a spaceshuttle or a ladder that's forever However I'm better if not now than never Don't you ever fix ya lips unless you bout to suck my dick Bitch swallow words taste my thoughts And if it's too nasty spit it back at me (Please forgive the complete lack of lyrical structure, but I couldn't sensibly sort this garbage out were I inclined to do so)
From the track "Got Money":
Bitch ain't shit but a hoe in a trick But you kno it ain't trickin if you got it You know we ain't fucking if you not thick And I cool your ass down if you think you're hot shit So rolex watch this I do it 4 5 6 my click Clack goes the black 4/5 And just like it I blow that shit Cause bitch I'm the bomb like (tick tick) Yeah!
From the track "Playing with Fire":
They say you're nobody til somebody kills you But where I'm from you're nobody til you kill somebody And you kno what they say When you're great it's not murder it's assassinate So assassinate me bitch Cause I'm doin the same shit Martin Luther King did Checkin in the same hotel in the same suite bitch the same balcony Like assassinate me bitch
Poetry... pure poetry. Bill Shakespeare's got nothing on this guy!
Must be a heart-warming moment for a parent... your reason for being, your sweet little baby, who you've raised to be an asset to humanity, your ten-year-old child asks for Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" because all his / her little friends have it. How can you say no? After all, it's 2008's best-selling album!!!
December 21, 2012, baby!!!
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