THOUGHTS: Is 90's gangsta rap becoming 80's hard rock?
- Sean Eric McGill
As a performer in hard rock bands in the eighties, I am more than qualified to say that it was at best an embarrassing time. For every good band that came out of the woodwork and actually accomplished something professionally, we were drowning in half-assed groups who were signed on the basis of their hair and their ability to make a mean face for the camera. In other words, their ability to look like they were "rockin'" superceded their ability to actually play - at least, that's what it seemed like.
And now, the ghost of eighties hard rock is finally behind us. Oh sure, a band like Jackyl comes around every now again and resurrects the ghost, but that's O.K. You see, ten bands doing that shtick is one thing - the thousand bands is something completely different.
But it seems that every few years, a style of music becomes a parody of itself as hard rock did in the Reagan-era. And now it seems that rap (and more specifically, gansta rap) has become this era's self-parody of choice. Now, I realize that by being a white male and criticizing gangsta rap I'm opening myself to a host of arguments, from "Well, you just don't get it" to "You're just a racist" - and if you feel that way, I apologize. But like it or not, you didn't have to be young, white, and horny to realize that hard rock in the eighties was full of crap for the most part and you don't have to be young, black and angry to realize that a good many rap artists today are making the genre they're a part of look more and more like a joke.
First, let's hit the aesthetic qualities. In the eighties, the hair got bigger and the "come-hither" scowls or rockers like Don Dokken and David Lee Roth were king. And in gangsta rap these days, the heads are getting balder and the scowls aren't as much "come-hither" as they are "get the hell away from me".
Everyone has to be badder than the guy who preceded them. They're more hardcore, they've done more time, they've smacked more bitches - whatever.
Why? Because being more hardcore, and doing more time, and smacking more bitches translates to more album sales. And if you can recall the era and were male, you'll remember that in the eighties, you drank more beer, you screwed more bitches, and you were cooler than the guy who preceded you. After you heard the one-millionth band come out and sing about chasing down women, it became a joke. And after you hear the one-millionth rapper come out and rap about chasing down the punk who tried to rip him off, it's still a joke.
Now, this isn't to say that I'm advocating the death of rap music - not by a long shot. Rap, probably more than any other form of music, gets the closest to what's happening in our inner-cities. It's a lot easier for a young African-American to identify with Ice Cube's tales of street life than for a young white person to understand how Eddie Vedder hates being famous. But in the music industry, the idea of "too much of a good thing" is a valid one. Aerosmith is one of the best rock bands of all time - but we didn't need a million other bands that tried to be them. And the same is true for rap music.
I mean, let's be honest here - what brought this whole concept into my mind was that I ran across a rapper named "Kaution". There were about ten thousand rock bands named that in the eighties, and I'm sure some of them are still playing the seedy bar of your choice where you live, knocking out Poison and Ratt songs to a roaring crowd of drunkards, banging their heads in unison in their sleeveless "Rockin with Dokken" t-shirts. The point is this - there are so many "Kautions" and "Outlawz" out there that a lot of the quality is getting lost in the quantity.
And that's where the true problem is in this discussion. Like it or not, there were some good bands that played hard rock music and came out in the eighties. But there were more that got lost in the crowd, positioned between Grim Reaper and Guy Mann-Dude. And for every Ice Cube, there's someone who's just as talented, but won't get recognized because he's stuck between two fly-by-night acts. Just because something can sell doesn't mean it should.
