When I first listened to Crank That, I thought, okay, he's just a terrible rapper and a one-hit wonder that became popular with the mainstream music crowd. But when it comes to listening to artists I believe "give me bad music once, shame on you, give me bad music twice, shame on me", so I decided to give him another chance. Then I listen to Report Card, and now whatever respect I had for him before has just sunk, and I need to vent about it because it is not just bad music. Vanilla Ice made bad music, but Soulja Boy's crap is also destructive to society.
First of all, it is clear that he is fed up with all of the wannabe's that follow him around, asking for his autograph etc. when he wants to be treated like a regular human being. I don't interact with too many celebs but I'd guess that those people are more annoying to them than the haters. While I'd never be one of those people in front of the celebs I love (for basketball fans out there, I actually saw former head coach Larry Brown in a CVS and didn't say a word to him because I know that they want their private life), I cannot sympathize with the celebs who complain about it because they either know or should know that annoying fans come with the territory for the career path that they choose. Nobody put a gun to Soulja Boy's head and told him to sell music and become famous or else. He is right, everybody should leave him alone and stop buying his music altogether. Then we'll see how he feels about his fan club. Give him peace!!!
Second (and most importantly), in the song he is telling kids that it is okay to fail all of ur classes, not go to school, and ignore the people who are trying to be positive influences (like the guy in the beginning who calls him up and tells him and his friend to put the video game down and go to school). I know rappers send negative images all the time and mostly is meant to be seen as entertainment, but this one hit me particularly hard because I am going to college after SPM and my dream is to study in the UK. I spent countless hours after school doing homework, trying to be a positive influence by helping to get good grades and graduate and go to college, and my fear is that these same kids go home and listen to the exact opposite message from Soulja Boy. I'm not going to give a whole "education is important" lecture here, but I will say that he'd never be able to play that video game he was playing at the beginning of the music video if the people who designed the video game concept (and the TV for that matter) didn't know a thing or two about technology, and wanted their teachers in high school to "throw some D's on that *beep*
This is all I have to say for now. If you're going to respond to my comments in disagreement, please don't respond with either of the following:
-"If you don't like his music then don't listen to it and stop hating" well, 1. How am I supposed to know how I feel about it if I don't listen to it first, and 2. Hating in that context means dissent out of jealousy (usually by picking on little irrelevant matters, an example being those people who say "yeah swizz beatz makes good songs but he has a big nose"). I'm not dissenting out of jealousy, I'm dissenting out of the negative image the music portrays for society.
-"Well if you saw the whole video you'd see he tells kids to stay in school at the end" Yeah, with an arrogant smirk on his face. Come on, I know hip-hop portrays negative images of what goes on in the ghetto quite frequently, but to make a mockery of the education system is outrageous. To those of you who think I just don't appreciate hip hop, rap/hip-hop is one of my favorite types of music. I grew up listening to 2pac, Biggie, Mobb Deep etc. rap about their struggles. A lot of times rappers will talk about pimpin' and drug dealing which is already seen as having a negative effect on society by some. However, NONE of those rappers would ever advise children that if someone is telling you to get off ur ass and get to school, that you should just tellem "YAAAAAHHHH". That is a new low.
No comments:
Post a Comment