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Influential Artist and Cultures.
My biggest influence in making music would have to be Young L. Now I bet you ask yourself who is Young L?, good question. Young L is a west coast rapper/producer, and member of the Rap group known as “The Pack”. Young L is one of my biggest influences mainly because he doesn’t give a shit what people think of his music: He’s not the greatest producer ever, and he’s also not that great of a rapper, but regardless of what many people may say about how ignorant his music is he still does it. Young L understands what many people don’t so intuitively grasps I like to think, and that is whatever your profession may be your supposed to have fun when you do it, regardless how much better the next man may be at it or how many people tell you no. Young L makes a very obscure type of music, he takes very complex ideas or topics so to speak and makes them extremely 1 dimensional; now this in many ways makes his music come off as ignorant and dumb, but it also matches the simple minded thought process of many African American youth. This brings me to the subject of influences of my culture. My culture has influenced me greatly as an artist, I grew up focusing on the more political and intelligent rappers of the 90’s, artists had voices and stood for something important at the time. If you go and look for the opinions of old Hip-Hop artist on new Hip-Hop artist many of them say that new “M.C’s are not fit to be Hip-Hop artist or that “Hip-Hop is dead…” (rapper, Nasir Jones, XXL). The only difference between then and now is that there are more and more Hip-Hop artist who have gone through more privileged lives where it is possible that they have not experienced racism or prejudice, so I feel as though there is no need to focus on making a music that empowers one race over another or discuss topics such as racism. Not to say that these prejudice no longer exist, but that they are wearing thin amongst Americas youth. I myself have experienced criticisms from many people within the Chicago Hip-Hop community, on how my music isn’t real enough or that it’s “white boy music”. From the simple minded prejudice that my predecessors have developed from old Hip-Hop music, I am sure to create music that is relevant not just to a specific culture but to all cultures and people.
My biggest influence in making music would have to be Young L. Now I bet you ask yourself who is Young L?, good question. Young L is a west coast rapper/producer, and member of the Rap group known as “The Pack”. Young L is one of my biggest influences mainly because he doesn’t give a shit what people think of his music: He’s not the greatest producer ever, and he’s also not that great of a rapper, but regardless of what many people may say about how ignorant his music is he still does it. Young L understands what many people don’t so intuitively grasps I like to think, and that is whatever your profession may be your supposed to have fun when you do it, regardless how much better the next man may be at it or how many people tell you no. Young L makes a very obscure type of music, he takes very complex ideas or topics so to speak and makes them extremely 1 dimensional; now this in many ways makes his music come off as ignorant and dumb, but it also matches the simple minded thought process of many African American youth. This brings me to the subject of influences of my culture. My culture has influenced me greatly as an artist, I grew up focusing on the more political and intelligent rappers of the 90’s, artists had voices and stood for something important at the time. If you go and look for the opinions of old Hip-Hop artist on new Hip-Hop artist many of them say that new “M.C’s are not fit to be Hip-Hop artist or that “Hip-Hop is dead…” (rapper, Nasir Jones, XXL). The only difference between then and now is that there are more and more Hip-Hop artist who have gone through more privileged lives where it is possible that they have not experienced racism or prejudice, so I feel as though there is no need to focus on making a music that empowers one race over another or discuss topics such as racism. Not to say that these prejudice no longer exist, but that they are wearing thin amongst Americas youth. I myself have experienced criticisms from many people within the Chicago Hip-Hop community, on how my music isn’t real enough or that it’s “white boy music”. From the simple minded prejudice that my predecessors have developed from old Hip-Hop music, I am sure to create music that is relevant not just to a specific culture but to all cultures and people.
Young L's myspace:
first off, thanks for the comment. what you said was very interesting, but it's not so that i think recording a ''hit song'' is what music is all about, but listening to them sort of gives me an idea of how i would like to record my own music just in case i feel like my work isn't good enough. but believe me, i do explore different elements of music just to get an idea of what the ''true meaning'' of sound really is.
ReplyDeleteto refer to your blog topic, i would have to say that i respect how you look up to Young L for his motivating self-pride and not for what he's accomplished because some aspiring musicians only look up to the ''famous ones'' when being a real musician is all about being content and enjoying making music. i also loved how you pointed out the differences between rappers of the past and present. when you compare 90s hip-hop artists like Will Smith & Queen Latifah to today's rookies like Plies & Chingy, it's really easy to understand that one pair was all about degrading social issues just to empower good changes, while the other pair had tendencies to brag and rant about their success. just like me, it's good to know that you took an interest in exploring the history side of music just to gain knowledge on what being your own artist is all about.
N-Deeed, its like ur n my mind...Gracias
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