I t is very easy for us as listeners and consumers to criticize an
artist's motivation and desire for diverting from their original form of
music. I think especially with hip-hop where a large majority of the
artists never reap any monetary benefits or artistic accolade for their
work. Vibe did an interesting article on Nas' transformation, and I can
completely understand why he went the Puff Daddy route, His best album
"illmatic" went bootleg before he even could receive any type of reward
for his most passionate and efforts. Looking around at what the masses
deems worthy, Nas flipped the script for his family and his dignity (oddly
enough). In addition, our desire for the "same thing as the last" limits
an artists natural ability to innovate. Not every Stevie album is
Innervisions, but each album contributed to the evolution of music. So
before we
quickly assume that artists, i.e. D'Angelo, Nas, Common, "fell off" take
into consideration their circumstances and what the monotony the masses
thirst for.
> I got no problem with artists stretching and
> expanding their music, testing the boundaries,
> exploring new options. I think Common succeeds there
> by hooking up with a different production team and
> putting out an album that *sonically* sounds different
> than the rest of the ish out there.
> Where I have problems is when artists delve away
> from the messages and ideals they stood for, the very
> reason they were respected before. (If you look at my
> first mesage, I never said Common did this
> completely). Look at Nas for instance, "Illmatic" was
> an outstanding album that had success for how organic
> and raw it came off as. Then he went off in some other
> direction with his following albums. He might say he
> *grew*, others would say he fell off.
> I think fans of underground music hold high
> expectations of artists because they're constantly in
> fear of money and fame turning them away from the
> scene that put them up. So they critically
> (over)analyze every breakbeat and lyric..
> This was a long ass, rambling piece signifying
> nothing but an opinion. Sorry ya'll...
>
> -B-
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Ralph Cooper [mailto:rcooper3@excite.com]
> > I find that strange.
> > Waiting for months for an
> > album by ones "favorite artist" to come out just to
> > find ways to describe
> > how much one is let down cause, "it wasn't as good
> > as the last one". It's
> > almost like people are afraid to let each other
> > grow, am I the only one who
> > is seeing this?
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Apr 10 2000 - 21:45:31 MET DST