ps. SA has already risen man! i dont need to help it rise! get ya research right! WE A FORCE TO BE reCKONED with bitch!
What exactly do you mean here clone man? Market share-wise? Sales-wise?..Authenticity-wise?
This thread is & always has been about the authenticity. Stop trying to cloud the issue.
I will never be able to take a rapper seriously who copies someone else's culture.
...real is repping who you are and where you're from.
What I hate is the distorted (and sadly prevalent) logic in South Africa that the closer to American Hip Hop you sound, the more 'real' you are. It's crazy because the exact opposite is actually true.
If you went to a model C school and you rap about things from your own experience - that is real. If you're from the rural areas, and you rep that - that is real. If you're kasi and you rep that - you're real. One is not more 'real' than the other. One is not more 'black' or more 'African' than the other.
For me, this issue is about mimicry as opposed to a**imilation. Culture and language and inexorably intertwined. There are a lot of Jamaicans in London - their slang has mixed in with everyday London slang which is what you hear on Grime or UK Hip Hop. Jamaican culture has been fully a**imilated into british culture.
a**imilation is a very different process to mimicry. We don't have a large community of Americans living amongst us in South Africa, sharing and influencing our culture. We just see them on tv, and hear them through their music. This is not enough to be part of their culture and fully understand it - when I play (fake American) SA Hip Hop to American friends they literally find it funny to hear their slang used slightly incorrectly - one of the dangers of copying from a distance.
Unlike a**imilation where one culture is taken in, and fully understood by the other, we just see from afar. We miss out on the ever-developing nuances of language, the daily use of the slang and the cultural references.
As I have said before, the UK went through the same process - the nearer you could sound to American Hip Hop, the more authentic you were. Luckily this all changed - UK rappers started repping the UK,,, and suddenly the industry grew ma**ively.
The same thing will happen here. When the people find rappers who they see themselves in, these rap mimics will become a thing of the past.
Maybe people missed this post^^^
your damn right Dplanet, the tip of the iceburg isn't enough to make it work anymore. i like what you wrote just above.
now just a thought:
imagine if shitte or sunni muslims in the middle east suddenly felt like expressing their everyday problems or good fortunes through hiphop. but really representing themselves. telling the truth is powerful. i know i would buy a 12 track album explaining why a shitte is so quick to hate a sunnie, or vica versa. maybe their definition of living a righteous life. i think that would be something. but people would be like what the hell are these fools rapping for?
? i say they desearve that chance if they ever decide to take it.
being an artist, you have to take responsibilty for what you create. Cash have you ever looked at it this way? there are billions of people all over the earth man. and your nation represents a small percent of the earths population. if you are conducting your life based on what another percentage of the world does actually go through. you fail yourself, family, friends, & the fans.
i garuntee if you applied you mind to producing truth through your music, the reality will stick in the mind of someone from newyork much longer than things they've already known.
time and sequences of major events are responsible for why culture exists. CASH name one major event that caused the birth of HIPHOP culture.
Hint:
"Cash, if you would just be yourself and pour out ya truth, that is the answer ."
HIPHOP in particular belongs in Africa!
I feel that AFRICA is responsible for HIPHOP.
ANY African (hiphop) artist to be exact, owes the rest of the world.
"your ancestors are responsible for its birth"
"so now you're responsible to take it to a higher plateu"
all of yall need realize that everybodys waiting for this. especially me.
that other percent of the world outside of the continent of Africa would probably start including yalls trend. i garuntee it. but that takes time and a series of events to make happen.
Cash would you die making a postive contrbution for this culture? thats how big the responsibilty is, and if your in it for the cash and trendy lifestyle that the western culture sells, then do us Yankee's a favor, don't import your projects to the US. those lies are already there.
yup~
