Do you want your rappers to live their lyrics? Be who they say they are...

[Westbama Heartthrob]

I don’t like being lied to. I don’t require street rap, but if you gonna be a street rapper I need you to be authentic

Edit: and the movie angle is not the same. No one goes to see a movie thinking the actors are actually who they are portraying. Rappers try to sell you on the authenticity angle that’s the difference

The question is why though

Why does a rapper have to really be who they present themselves as in the first place?

Especially when rap didn't start that way. Nobody thought that this was based on a true story

 

[BK The Great]

If they lived the lifestyle of a street dude, drug dealer or gang member I want to hear what they went thru and hopefully they can evolve with their music. I’m not trying to keep hearing the same boring content over again. About 90% of the stuff you’re hearing in the music is exaggerated.

 

[critical_temp]

Authentic. You gotta live it to the point where you at least did the majority of shyt you rap about or was around it/in the mix. Not a nikka who's just making stuff up because it sounds clever.

I don't care if you rap like prime Rakim mixed with 1996 Jay-Z, if that shyt is made up, and I KNOW it's made up, I'm not trying to hear it.

Why?

 

[GetRichOrDieTryin]

I think it comes down to how you respond to the question of is it real or not

Take drake and Ross for example
Ross denies he's fake and acts like he's real
Drake makes it known it's who he's connected to

 

[Swahili P'Bitek]

Fake gangster rap I can take, because if you grew up around it, you'd know most of it is just entertainment and fairy tales, actual criminality is really dark, but fake righteous rap hell no. You can't be Malcolm X on record and out here in talking bad about black people, loving white women and the like.

 

[FTBS]

I don’t like being lied to. I don’t require street rap, but if you gonna be a street rapper I need you to be authentic

Edit: and the movie angle is not the same. No one goes to see a movie thinking the actors are actually who they are portraying. Rappers try to sell you on the authenticity angle that’s the difference

And thats the key word here...selling. Its all about selling not authentic authenticity. Even rappers that are actually from the street embellish. And those that dont dont last very long. That same sell job is why we have young dudes out here killing each other and dying believing they gotta live up to this street standard to be a man. Dudes either putting themselves in jail with lyrics or killing/get killed over an image. We accept that movies are fake so you dont have Mike B. really trying to fight the world champ or kill a murderous crew by himself or take over an African nation. And you dont have other actors following in his footsteps trying to do the same because he did it. We dont have fans saying "If you shooting nikkas in movies, you better be shooting them in real life." Sounds ridiculous right? So why do we expect that in rap? Just because we've been sold on it? At a certain point we gotra recognize the game for what it is and acknowlege the damage that is being done.

 

[Mac Ten]

You have more rappers crashing out these days…


Rappers need to be like 50 Cent.


Stop living out your raps while you’re having a career especially if u already been through it

If u you’re making money legally, why walk around playing with fire??

 

[newarkhiphop]

Personally they don't have to as long as they have talent, them being "about that life" is just extra points.

 

[The_Third_Man]

if the rapper is real and lived every thing he raps about, but he can't rhyme for shyt and can't make a song. whats the point of listening to him? his authenticity won't make trash music more listenable.

to me,it's about the rapper skills and his ability to make music first and foremost. after that comes authenticity but in moderation. I mean he doesn't have to do every thing he rap about, but he should be familiar with it and lived around it.

 

[IsThatBrothaMouzone?]

Issue is rappers speak about hood shyt as if it's the life THEY live....instead of rapping like a close-up observer, a reporter.

Tell us about the kingpin, including the ups and inevitable fall. Don't pretend you are the kingpin unless you really lived that life. And by "live", I mean you actually made enough money as a dopeboy to where you only got out the game because you knew you'd either get locked up or killed in the streets.

 

[Pop123]

The hood is nasty and disgusting. Hood dudes are idiots 90% of the time. Going to prison is devastating and ruins your whole life, nothing is cool about it. Being tough is cool to children, when you enter adulthood that shhit is corny and nobody wants to be around it except other derelict fukk-ups with peanut brains and no skill at anything.

Fukk all that and all rappers who represent any of it…real or fake. Make Rap Regular Again, lol, gimme a De La or sumn man, why can’t dudes just rap about normal shhit in a fire way?