conscious heads

[the panic!]

conscious heads are people who don't like hip hop, but like a certain sound and certain way of thinking that came from a certain era and certain group within hip hop.

they revise what hip hop is according to their taste and claim that the shit they like is hip hop. all because a few rappers (KRS-ONE) told them so.

this pa**ed week i listened to 2 hour long mixes of hip hop from 1990 to 1998. i realized that if you average it out, music from the golden era just sounds different, but doesn't actually deviate that much in content to what you could find on the airwaves in 2010. in fact new music is smarter, more sonically innovative, 'sensitive' and even funnier than 90's rap. the only reason heads call it transient (there ain't no 'cla**ics') is because it's  too contemporary for them to attach it to nostalgia.

conscious heads are conservatives. maybe all the shit they hate and that embarra**es them about hip hop [or 'rap'] is hip hop. maybe hip hop was always meant to be nasty and misanthropic and not easily palatable to your parents. and maybe that's the beauty of it. it accommodated everyone, even the dumba**es no one would take seriously in society. the shit didn't judge and it offered complete freedom of expression.

so the irony is that the shit  the conscious heads say is killing hip hop is hip hop and the shit they believe in is just one out of its many faces.

which is why, after guiding you for years, all your favourite conscious rappers are now post-conscious. which is a subgenre of hip hop that is aware of consciousness, but doesn't make itself exclusive to the sound, artists and thinking of what is generally regarded as 'mainstream' (all those features that disappoint those of you with a rigid perspective).

discuss!

[RearrangedReality]

Interesting.

but this ...

this pa**ed week i listened to 2 hour long mixes of hip hop from 1990 to 1998. i realized that if you average it out, music from the golden era just sounds different, but doesn't actually deviate that much in content to what you could find on the airwaves in 2010. in fact new music is smarter, more sonically innovative, 'sensitive' and even funnier than 90's rap. the only reason heads call it transient (there ain't no 'cla**ics') is because it's  too contemporary for them to attach it to nostalgia.

... is totally wrong. shocking to read in fact. Not sure if I should give you a chance to dwell more on this point so I can see what you seeing that im not seeing.


but about this point, "more sonically innovative", for those who havent moved to the more mainstream sound this is true. as most of the mainstream successfull artist, they have just found new noisy sounds on the software to polute the airwaves.

[the panic!]

Interesting.

but this ...

this pa**ed week i listened to 2 hour long mixes of hip hop from 1990 to 1998. i realized that if you average it out, music from the golden era just sounds different, but doesn't actually deviate that much in content to what you could find on the airwaves in 2010. in fact new music is smarter, more sonically innovative, 'sensitive' and even funnier than 90's rap. the only reason heads call it transient (there ain't no 'cla**ics') is because it's  too contemporary for them to attach it to nostalgia.

... is totally wrong. shocking to read in fact. Not sure if I should give you a chance to dwell more on this point so I can see what you seeing that im not seeing.

let me know, bro!

an easy way to do this would be to isolate the biggest artists during that time and examine their output. and then ask yourself if its really a stretch of the imagination to think they could pa** on radio, today, in terms of content.

[watziznehmegin]

It's all about the Zeitgeist of the culture!

[biz-ark-human]

Well, 'heads' in general don't support hip-hop product by buying it. As for 'conscious heads' ... f*** em and their outright ignorance 

[the panic!]

agree with the above two comments.

Watz, i'm seeing more and more of that.

[Anna Sasin]

Nami I get tired of 'conscious heads'.
I was reading an article recently about the difference between people with high ambivalence and people who see the world in black and white.
Conscious heads are usually the latter and few human traits irritate me more than a myopic inflexibility.

Nothing wrong with bigging up quality art and giving it its due prominence, or even expecting to hear positive messages in the music, but this cry baby 'let's throw the baby out with the bathwater' attitude make me dry. Context is everything.

[General Ratzinger van Stilzkin]

how are 'conscious heads' different from grumpy old men who are past their prime and heyday?

all complain about the new jacks and how things were better back in the day?


just need to get with the program or sit down somewhere.

[VirginPussy]

conscious heads are people who don't like hip hop, but like a certain sound and certain way of thinking that came from a certain era and certain group within hip hop.[/b]
they revise what hip hop is according to their taste and claim that the shit they like is hip hop. all because a few rappers (KRS-ONE) told them so.

this pa**ed week i listened to 2 hour long mixes of hip hop from 1990 to 1998. i realized that if you average it out, music from the golden era just sounds different, but doesn't actually deviate that much in content to what you could find on the airwaves in 2010. in fact new music is smarter, more sonically innovative, 'sensitive' and even funnier than 90's rap. the only reason heads call it transient (there ain't no 'cla**ics') is because it's  too contemporary for them to attach it to nostalgia.

conscious heads are conservatives. maybe all the shit they hate and that embarra**es them about hip hop [or 'rap'] is hip hop. maybe hip hop was always meant to be nasty and misanthropic and not easily palatable to your parents. and maybe that's the beauty of it. it accommodated everyone, even the dumba**es no one would take seriously in society. the shit didn't judge and it offered complete freedom of expression.

so the irony is that the shit  the conscious heads say is killing hip hop is hip hop and the shit they believe in is just one out of its many faces.

which is why, after guiding you for years, all your favourite conscious rappers are now post-conscious. which is a subgenre of hip hop that is aware of consciousness, but doesn't make itself exclusive to the sound, artists and thinking of what is generally regarded as 'mainstream' (all those features that disappoint those of you with a rigid perspective).

discuss!

the first point...this can be proved how?


Mind you, you summed up this theory in just 2 hours of music

Explain conservative in this context

[the panic!]

i'll answer, but i'd like to know what you think about said theory, first.

[VirginPussy]

i'll answer, but i'd like to know what you think about said theory, first.

That looks like Bra Daniel on your avatar, nice pic.

I don't think much of said theory, see its been divulged into many a time ago.... I feel it helps in no way with moving forward, but somehow I still find it interesting when brought up.  I would love for you to explain exactly what you mean when you say "conservative" the last I checked anyone who does not follow any manner of 'main stream' thinking is actually far from that I have mentioned earlier.  I have an opinion about this topic, but its mainly just that...an opinion that I would like not to impose on others...i do not hate what the supposed 'conscious head' bring, its all based on choice...Hegemony is my favourite 'conscious' track

[the panic!]

i don't mean conservative in terms of politics.

i mean it in terms of music. the kind of sound and thinking they allow themselves to listen to in hip hop is narrow. because 'underground' or 'conscious' is a niche, it cut outs a majority of what hip hop is comprised of. which is why, like biz-ark-human alluded to, most peeps actually don't know much about hip hop at all. history or otherwise. they just know a lot about what they like in hip hop. and whatever they don't like they throw out. i'm just saying, if you view the historical progression of hip hop objectively, you'll see that it's all the same shit.

and it's not terrible to embrace all of it. because the freedom to do whatever the f*** is, and probably should be, the only constant in the music. like Watz said, it reflects the zeitgeist. conscious fans resist this. and that's what makes them conservative. they resist changes to what they perceive to be the culture, and won't even give props to innovative and influential artists who they find mainstream because that's 'bad'.

dude with a straight face telling me Slug should be in a top 5 list before Jay 

[i was also gonna say they're hella conservative when it comes to sex in music, too. but because this is mostly seen as a gender issue i can't speak on it. a woman would have to. i mean are women actually deeply offended by 'booty' videos and lyrics?]

[bean]

Think the only thing that's ever been conservative about hip hop is Christian hip hop. People make choices as to what they want to hear, not an intangible composition of sound as the authority. As for the sex in music, Breezly Brewin for example is "socially commentative" - a "conscious hip hop trait" if you will, but can easily sling sexual obscenities on a track like Sex Type Thang and come the f*** off. The track I mean.

[The Angry Hand of God]

While we're on this topic, do you think this young man's tips on how to be successful in hip hop are good?

[the panic!]

While we're on this topic, do you think this young man's tips on how to be successful in hip hop are good?

ha ha ha! this is actually brilliant in some weird way.