Hip Hop 101 for Baby Boomers

This one's going under hip-hop 101 because it illustrates a point I've been trying to make for a while now. (Old) People are always like "Rap's nasty. Rappers are nasty. Materialistic and stupid and violent and mysoginist and blah di blah blah blah." They seem to think it's some evil conspiracy dreamed up by the Bloods and the Crips to currupt the youth and destroy western music and sell more crack cocaine. Or something. And I'm always yelling back, "you just don't hear the good rap music because of white corporate America and the evil capitalist pigs who own the record labels and the distributors and the video channels and the whole fucking world for that matter." Saying hip-hop is bad is like saying journalism is bad. Hip-hop isn't bad, 50 Cent is bad. Journalism isn't bad.

Fox News is bad.

You crazy boomers have subscriptions to Harpers and the New Yorker for a reason. When it comes to information about the world and opinions about things that matter, you go out and find the good stuff and try not to be brainwashed by Rupert Murdoch's boob tubetry. But when it comes to culture and music you do one flip through the dial or see one Nelly video and you get that "icky-poo-poo" look on your face and bemoan the down fall of rock and roll and wonder out loud why kids don't want to listen to the new Bob Dylan record. Go to a record store. Ask around. Talk to me. I'll make you goddamn tape. It's not that hard. But it's not as easy as letting your first impression be the final say and letting your sour-puss opinions keep you from experiencing and participating in the most important and earth shattering cultural movement America's unleashed on the world since democracy.