Point / Counterpoint

POINT:
The biggest problem with major-label rap is the lifeless, joyless, warmed-over boilerplate that passes for entertainment. Every rapper is a caricature of himself - posturing "dangerously" against CGI backgrounds with manicured fingernails and waxed eyebrows. The travesty of it all is not an issue of authenticity - Bob Dylan's real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman and his true singing voice is more syrup than gravel - it's the end product. It seems to me that if you're going to base your appeal on charisma and popularity, the onus is on you to be charismatic and popular. To paraphrase Lil Wayne, you need your swagger right to get your game tight.

Where hath the bounce gone?

Elzhi: Guessing Game
from The Preface (see best of 2008)


COUNTERPOINT:
The biggest problem with underground rap is the glut of unoriginal, unskilled rappers over tinny homemade beats complaining about how they're better than the rappers on the radio. Amidst all the kvetching, it's easy to start believing that they might have a point. But, there's a reason you can't get through their album and you know every ad-lib on the Jeezy CD. I've always had an issue with conflating difficulty and merit in music - that is to say, the easiest way to make my eyes glaze over is to start murmuring about how some sort of complexity makes your music inherently better. Music aint no damn calculus problem, son. Does it bump?

Aight then.

Young Jeezy: Don't Know You
from The Recession (see best of 2008)