So what is your point?We arent talking about ghosts and goblins here but nepotism, nepotism.

 

Piracy has destroyed smaller artists, that's why you see mainstream pop being received so well critically these days, it is not profitable to cover indie or less mainstream acts for music journalists.

Taylor Swift can live with a certain percentage of her fanbase not paying her anything and pirating, small artists need every sale they can get, they get destroyed by piracy.

 

No secret NWO, for sure.
But you're the only one living in a nice world where the working artist gets his due. Specialy the poor working artist.
It wasn't true back in 2Pac days, and it certainly isn't today. The reasons for that might be more complicated then NWO or such theories,no doubt,but acting as if the world (or the US) is a place where working people get their due (in music or in any area really) ? WThell ?
2Pac rejected imaginary false entities that act in the shadow, yep, he always knew what was wrong with the country he was living in, and who were the ennemies, he knew what the ennemy looked like and that he was real, and he never lived or gave the illusion to live in a world where it wasn't so,that fantasy wasn't for him. Not while he was struggling to make it as an artist, even less when the system came upon him to put him in jail. Or his family,or his friends. His parents (well his step dad and his mom) were active policaly,close to black panther and marxism, it's this kind of milk that he was rised upon.
He was angry and vindictive toward people responsable for that world (politicians, cops, the rich and the powerfull) and he was even more vindictive to people deniying it and living in a bubble, ignoring the pain of his people,not acting to make a change.
He knew and denounced strongly the fate awaiting most people, specially colored people in this white man world, living in poor neigbourhoods, specially the ones not ready to fight back. Hold on, be strong, and fight back. Not work and meet your fame and fortune, well not until his last album that is.
He wasn't delusionnal enought to say or rap "be dedicated and it will be all right", "forget about that jail time you shouldn't be making and it will be all right", "the death toll in our block is cool, just chill and practice you'll make it"...He just wasn't like that and rightfully so. No one would remember this great artist if he had said or defended that pov.

You can not believe in goblins but still have a bit of lucidity regarding the hell hole we're condamned to deal with.
Believing today in the whole "reach for the stars and hang on it will come to you" is as much a magic thinking as believing that goblins hide in the shadow. It's like believing in Santa.

Edit :

Verse 1

Dear sister, got me twisted up in prison I miss ya
Cryin lookin at my niece's and my nephew's picture
They say "Don't let this cruel world get ya", kinda suspicious
Swearin one day you might leave me, for somebody that's richer
Twist the cap off the bottle, I take a sip and see tomorrow
Gotta make if I have to beg or borrow
Readin love letters, late night, locked down and quiet
If brothers don't recieve they mail...
Best believe we riot
Eatin Jack-Mack, starin at walls of silence
Inside this cage where they captured all my rage and violence
In time I learned a few lessons, "Never fall for riches"
Aplogizies to my true sisters, far from bitches
Help me raise my black nation reperations are due, it's true
Caught up in this world I took advantage of you
So tell the babies how I love them, precious boys and girls
Born black in this white man's world... And all I heard was :...

Verse 2
"Bein born with less I must confess only adds on to the stress
Two gunshots to my homie's head, dyed in his vest
Shot him to death and left him bleedin for his family to see
I pass his casket gently askin, "Is there heaven for G's ?
"My homeboy's doin life, his baby momma be stressin
Sheddin tears when her son, finally ask that questions :
"Where my daddy at ? ", "Mama why we live so poor ? "
"Why you cryin ? Heard you late night through my bedroom door"
"Now do you love me mama ? ", "Whitey keep on callin me nigga ?
"Get my weight up with my hate and pay 'em back when I'm bigger
And still thuggin in this jail cell, missin my block
Hearin brothers screamin all night, wishin they'd stop
Proud to be black but why we act like we don't love ourselves
Don't look around busta (You sucka), Check yourselves
Know what it means to be black, whether a man or girl
We still strugglin, in this white man's world""

Oh and just for "fun", the last verse of what is probably his most famous song (Me against the world):

With all this extra stressin'
The question I wonder is after death, after my last breath
When will I finally get to rest through this oppression?
They punish the people that's askin' questions. And those that possess steal from the ones without possessions
The message I stress: to make it stop, study your lessons
Don't settle for less, even the genius asks his questions
Be grateful for blessings, don't ever change, keep your essence
The power is in the people and politics we address
Always do your best, don't let the pressure make you panic
And when you get stranded
And things don't go the way you planned it
Dreamin' of riches, in a position of makin' a difference
Politicians are hypocrites, they don't wanna listen
If I'm insane, it's the fame made a brother change
It wasn't nothin' like the game, it's just me against the world

And on and on...

 

Last edited: Jan 6, 2017

so all your pay... ( benefits ?) is going to your screaming internet connection?

 

Cronyism is no more prevalent in music than it is any socioeconomic/financial construct. My point being that talent with no hustle equates to nothing. The difference between people living their dream and you is mindsets and attitudes. Your rhetoric is despairing, I personally know and worked with guys from my city who came from nothing, hustled, and pull in around 600-700k a year. From performing in 14 states and iTunes and Spotify streaming. With no deal.

 

Most of the rap you hear on the radio (besides Future and Drake) are from guys who aren't signed to any major label. Macklemore, migos, Chance, Dev Hynes, Childish Gambino, Yo Gotti etc... Even a ton of alternative rock bands with crazy radio play are independent. You think these dudes got to where they are because of cronyism? lol I guess a little hard work, like marketing yourself, networking, building a fan base, advertising, merchandising, and other grass roots outreaches are just obsolete huh?

Nobody owes you anything. And talent doesn't guarantee you anything if you're not willing to sacrifice and work hard for what you want. I don't give a damn if you can play Mozart's "symphony #40" with a piccolo in your sleep.

 

Yea it is kind of despairing.Its been a week now since i have been dealing with a nasty cold, cant do shit in my studio, hell i look like shit as well,lol.

 

I listened to Tupac's demo on a cassette tape that was dropped off at Intercope Records in late '90 or '91 before he was signed. I thought his music was brilliant and was amused that he wanted those rich white folks to be involved. I considered it a sellout of sorts when he actually did, but if he had not who knows what his fate would be? Interscope was interesting because "the suits" of the organization let the A&R folk sign their artists. 2pacalypse is a classic, no doubt, but even the liberal white folk running the company were part and parcel of Tupac's fodder of creativity, his raison d'vivre by way of his inner expression to make sense and to expound the stories heard around the dinner table in his childhood home. Fuck, he is dead.

 

Fuck he is dead indeed.
Saying that interscope (or later DeathRow and Suge Knight) was part of 2Pac creativity is like sayin that François 1er (Francis I of France), the king patron of Leonardo Da Vinci was part of Leornado talent and genius, which is not the case. Would you say that it's the recording company who signed Dylan that was responsible for his talent ? promotion and distribution, exposure, are one thing, talent is another. This is to me the very definition of nepotism (the real one, not the NWO one), gotta go where the money is, where the power is to have a shot. It's surely part of his story and his fate wouldn't have been his fate without signing, no doubt, just like if he hadn't been jailed and broke he would never have signed with Deathrow and Suge, and he probably wouldn't have been gunned down a few months after that.
2pacalypse is a classic, for sure, and there are glimses of the 2Pac to come, beside the content, the lyrics who were very political, 2pac wasn't 2pac yet artisticly. I think he found his style and flow on the next album which was Striclty 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z (1993) with lovely songs such as "Representin 93", "Keep Ya Head Up", "the streets R deathrow" and "Deadly Venomz". This album is one of my favorite.
The whole white versus black and the racial (versus sociological or economical) reading that he had of the society he was dealing with is something I analyse differently as a French who doesn't believe in such racial apprehension of reality (like most European except the UK, most countries in Europe aren't fund of racial communities).
Even when he sings "A white man world", sings about the oppresion of the people not white of the US, which regarding the jail population, or life expectancy in the US is true but it's an economical situation and I think he knew that (even more today), I think he does that to be of reconfort for his people, there are many songs where he clearly states that we should look beside colors and it doesn't define us, I really don't believe that his fight was a racial one. The "White Man World" is the world of unfairness, corruption, violence and lack of hope that all the little guys have to deal with, and in his perspective the little guys (and women obviously) are mostly black and the powefull are mostly white (included the ones that are black, he was very harsh with people from his community selling out and not caring for the people left behind and ignored).
No rapper with his talent, and this kind of content, has made it at this level before and since his death, and it's such a rare conbination of stars aligning that it will never happen again. I don't think if he was 20 today and starting as an artist he would say the thing he said then (in the 90s there was still hope and the political content in many artist songs reflect that, people still cared it wasn't about fame and fortune), and even if he did he wouldn't be received the same way by the public today, as no one gives a crap about anything, and he would never reached the fame he reached back in the 90s, no way. It's a good thing he happened when he happened, or that story would have never have been written. Just like it's a good thing Leonardo was born during Renaissance.

 

Last edited: Jan 8, 2017

Tupac was a rare real genuine talent in that field imo
He was good at a lot of things some of his stuff was awesome.
Speaking of control and the music business is interesting the way in which his mother imposed control and the demands etc.
Don't blame her I guess but raised a few questions or eyebrows.
Yeah for me personally his stuff was quite different and shined through in some way

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 9, 2017

Today's nepotism?

What about The f-ing Jacksons? Or The Andrews Sisters?

 

It's just a family affaire!

 

I just got over my nasty cold, It was really bad also. Felt like crap. I hope you get well soon.
They say it's going around this year. Mine felt like the flu.

 

Thanks bro.Glad you are back on your feet.It is indeed a nasty one.