a cynic's guide to modern life
Commentary #9 09.29.03
P.I.M.P. is
L.A.M.E.
I was at a wedding reception the other day, and this song by a rapper
called 50 Cent (recently awarded the “Stupidest Name for an Entertainer
in History – and that includes Meat Loaf”) called P.I.M.P. starts
pumpin’, y’know what I’m sayin’ it was like, dope y’all, know
what I’m saying, yo, dog, homey g?
Skip it, ‘cause I sure as shit don’t know what I’m saying. But anyway, after listening to the lyrics of this nonsense, and watching some of the video, the song appears to be about:
1. He’s not your stereotypical pimp, because he doesn’t drive a Caddy and doesn’t have a perm
2. But he is your stereotypical pimp, because he treats women like shit and somehow justifies it because he can buy them nice clothes and champagne. Which I admit is all it takes to buy off the vast majority of women. And that’s just da bomb, y’all.
I’ve been trying to figure out for years why the vast majority of hip-hop has just become so lame, until I realized it this morning. Despite the fact that the beats are bland and boring (as evidenced by the people dancing in the clubs who sway listlessly back and forth and drinking themselves stupid to try and have fun. As a side note have you noticed the correlation between the skyrocketing use of ecstasy and the shitty music they play at clubs now? Music sucks so bad now, you need powerful hallucinogenics to enjoy it), I realized that hip-hop has become one huge shit pile because of marketing. Specifically the marketing of the music to white teen suburbia, perhaps the one demographic with the most disposable income and the absolute worst taste in music.
Remember the good old days of rap, when the music wasn’t completely sent through the blender and homogenized to be as appealing to the suburban half-wit? Remember Public Enemy fighting the power? NWA coming straight out of Compton? That shit went away in a hurry when the structure realized that Public Enemy talking about taking control, throwing away the liquor and drugs, getting educated and becoming media savvy may not be economically viable. And maybe we might want to cover up the fact that major American cities have become urban war zones between street gangs and corrupt cops.
So now what we get instead of NWA giving us a slice of the nightmare of ghetto life is 50 Cent. To be fair, 50 Cent is a man who has lived the life he sings about. But there is a fine line between the honest representation the rage of growing up in those circumstances and glorifying those experiences for a buck. Unfortunately, today’s crop of rappers fail to recognize that subtlety. Even the man who began to profit off of over-the-top misogynist and violent lyrics, Eazy-E, understood his fan base was white suburban teenagers and played to their fantasies of being tough, violent gangsters and being able to get laid at will. Eazy also understood the political nature of his work with NWA and his later solo work, which ironically ended up with him dying of complications from AIDS. The difference is that Eazy controlled his work and his destiny; 50 just does what his record company tells him to do. Gimme that Nut is so outrageous that it’s funny. P.I.M.P. is dumb at best and disgusting at worst. The most ironic thing of all is that 50 Cent is the one getting pimped to suburbia instead of using his talent to produce anything worthwhile. From the slack beats that are trying (and failing) to compete with boy band rhythms to the inane lyrics (“I’ll be your friend, your father, your confidant – BITCH!) P.I.M.P. is L.A.M.E.
So getting back to what I was saying before, buffoons like 50 Cent (and Nelly and pretty much the rest of them) are producing music for the white suburban audience instead of the white suburban audience picking up on the music in the urban centres – big difference. One is cutting-edge and viable, the other is hackneyed, tired and disposable. So who’s going to save hip-hop? I’m not holding my breath.
Copyright © 2003 Don Porter. All rights reserved.