Scarface: "the dumbest shit ever is #1 on the radio right no

[Crazee]

I respect Macklemore's grind, but I don't dig his sound and think his social commentary is shallow and lame. There's no meat there, IMO. I mean yeah, if you agree with his message than you'll like it but I personally hate sloganeering and emotional pleas in commentary. It's the same reason I hate Eminem's Mosh...it's not intelligent at all. Just bumper sticker slogans you'd see on signs at a rally. It's not my thing.

But anyways, I feel what Face is saying in that rap has been sort of homogenized and controlled by the suits. But that's business, right? They're funding your music and paying for your promotion, it's only fair they control your sound to some extent. This isn't just in rap...it's in rock music. It's in country music. It's not just music...it's how the world works. If you're an artist that builds a buzz before you're signed, you can sometimes negotiate for creative control(like T.I did before Trap Muzik). But mostly...if you want the label to make the money for you than you have to compromise with them.

It's not a racial thing, it's dollars and sense. Ringtone rap and iTunes rap is profitable. Put out a hit song, get people to buy the song for their phone or other device with almost no sunk cost. That's damaging hip-hop, the overemphasis on singles instead of albums. Every new CD is like...13 tracks and every song is designed to sell as a single to a different audience. There's nothing wrong with party rap, they've been part of the genre as long as political rap. It's a matter of the music sounding organic and not manufactured. I'll listen to Nelly anyday, dude's super talented and loves hip hop. It's shit like...Dem Franchise Boyz or whatever that really annoyed me. No talent, every song sounded the same...just trash.

I think it's funny that Scarface did two songs with ICP this year, though. I guess he respects their independent grind...

Edit: I get tired of the whole "anti-Jew" thing in black culture, sometimes. It's so fucking paranoid and racist. Sometimes, I just look past it and I'm used to it...like people look past some racist shit their uncle says. It's easy to demonize people I don't know/don't like, but when people I like say shit like that it's hard to know what to say. My fiance is black, and I hear some of this "jews run everything, protocols of zion" bullshit from her relatives and friends and it's fucking disgusting. I just don't get it. There are a lot of influential jews, but that conspiracy shit is so fucking stupid.

[Francesco]

Scarface is an absolute legend & I've been a fan of his & Geto Boys' forever but he's totally wrong about all that...
First of all he's been talking about all that way before Mack came into the picture & he's been complaining about different kinda things... like whatever suited him.
Secondly most labels were owned/managed by white folks even back then when he was the Scarface we all know about & most of it even in the PE & N.W.A era & after that in the 90's when Hip-hop was the hardest all those radio mass appeal songs were way more often on the radio than the hardcore shit.
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper was like 3xPlat, MC Hammers's second & fourth ablums were at least 2xPlat & his third was fucking Diamond in the US only. I could go on with Kid'n'Play, Salt'n'Pepa, etc. etc. & don't even get me started about Vanilla Ice. With some little exceptions in the mid to late 90's there were always more appealing acts who were more often on the radio & TV, esp. from the South & he knows that.
The other thing is he's talking about the craft but then talks about radio & commercial bull in the same sense... it's either you go 100% for the craft & do your own thang OR go for mass appeal & compromise so you'd be on the radio. Like BDK said It ain't no half steppin'.
Label politics are about money & that's that way before Hip-hop came into the picture as well.
He's just mad 'cuz he's one of the true greats but his charisma wasn't big enough to keep his thing going after he got older. He's definitely hurting his incredible legacy doing that though... like I said in one of my other posts in this thread Bun B never let go & had that masterpiece of an album like 3 years ago or so & he got money & all the recognition for it without been on the radio.

I said something similar as well in regards to mainstream rap being just as stupid in the 90s, and it's true, white people have been behind the scenes since the 80s.
Like Jerry Heller..... an old white jewish guy that managed a group called "Niggaz with Attitude". Or Steve Rifkind, who was a young rich white guy back in the 90s that put on artists like Wu-Tang and Mobb Deep.... and let's not even get started with Rick Rubin and Jimmy Iovine.... all these guys were making big moves back when, according to Scarface, hip-hop was "real".
I cannot continue to emphasize on just how stupid Scarface looks right now.

It is what it is... I still hate the fact it happens to such brilliant rapper & such a true great though.

....I think it's funny that Scarface did two songs with ICP this year, though. I guess he respects their independent grind...

Unfortunately that's not funny... it's sad. Like I said Face has been doing whatever suits him but has still complained about those things from like mid 00's at least... possibly even from before that.
He suppose to be against the system but totally goes with it wherever he's got the chance...
If he respected ICP 'cuz their independent grind then he should worship Mack 'cuz he's potentially the beginning of the end of the music labels & did so much on himself in times when even the biggest labels struggle to do so with well known artists.