I hate Post Malone. There someone finally said it. His music is mediocre, and he looks like he never showers.
In a recent interview done by NewOnce, Post Malone told the reporter that “If you’re looking to cry, if you’re looking to think about life, don’t listen to hip-hop. There’s great hip-hop songs where they talk about life and they spit that real shit, but right now, there's not a lot of people talking about real shit.”
What?
On November 28th, two rap albums were nominated by the Grammy’s for album of the year. Jay-Z’s 4:44 and Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. each has more than three nominations, and their albums discussed “real shit.”
The Story of O.J., a Grammy-nominated song produced by Jay-Z, has some lyrics that make some people uncomfortable. However, Jay told IHeartRadio that “‘The Story of O.J. is really a song about us as a culture, having a plan, how we’re gonna push this forward. We all make money, and then we all lose money- as artists especially. But how, when you have some type of success, to transform that into something bigger.”
In this song specifically, he makes a clear point about how the money in the black community seems to go into a continuous cycle of spending and wasting money when instead it should be invested into profitable options.
He continues to say, “We tend to, as black people—‘cause we never had anything, which is understandable—we get to a place and we just think we separate ourselves from the culture. You know, like where O.J. will get to a space where he’s like, 'I’m not black, I’m O.J.' … It’s gonna take for the way-showers to do it and then not get to that point and then turn into like, 'I ain’t black, I’m O.J.' ”
While Jay-Z discusses the economy of the black people, Kendrick speaks on what the media tends to focus on.
Using a snippet from a newsreel that discussed him in a negative light, Kendrick hints at the discussion of how rap music, in some eyes, isn't a something positive that's being produced from the black community.
In his hit single DNA., Kendrick reminds us that rap is a beacon of black culture- an outlet that musicians have been using to express their thoughts and ideas the only way they know how to be heard.
When asked by NPR about the not so subtle message Kendrick sent to Fox News, he says "[I've] always been a vessel. I can say the nastiest thing on record but I still feel like that's [being] a vessel. You need to hear it. I can't sugarcoat the reality."
While these highly praised albums are praised in the academy, what Post Malone might be referring to is what’s playing on the radio. Billboard’s top 100 hits that consist of artists like Lil Pump, Future, and Kodak Black, who tend to make music just to make people feel good.
But…..isn’t that what’s mostly played on the radio in this decade?
In Billboard’s Top 100 in the month of November, the popular songs that everyone’s playing on their radio consist of what everyone wants to hear: sex, love, heartbreak, drugs, and more sex. So why is it that when rap talks about the same thing, it’s considered not real music?
Just like every genre, there are artists who make music to send a certain message to their audience, and there are artists who make music that they want to be played at your local house party.
Whether Post wants to admit it or not, there are plenty of influential artists out there that create rap and discuss real messages that can make us emotional- even cry.
I know. It’s a crazy thought, but it’s true.
Yes, you’re going to get your artists that don’t want to discuss issues that can make us feel certain emotions, but there’s always an artist who feels like it’s their duty to, and we should give them credit for doing so.
