Rap is arguably the defining genre that kids are listening to nowadays. Between your typical pop jams and your mainstream hip-hop artists, teens and children today are already preconditioned to the music. However, there was a time when parents were clutching their pearls over the violence depicted by certain artists, the tragic deaths that would happen in the culture. As a result, they were strict about parental advisory stickers. Some would outright boycott to let their disapproval be known. They feared the brashness of Kanye West or the gangsta raps of 50 Cent. Certain people were committed to their negative perceptions of hip-hop.
This was a major point of discussion when Kanye was in the midst of his prime in 2007. Hip-hop had become global at the time and he was one of the faces of it. When a writer from DJBooth spoke with him that year, he felt like detractors weren’t being realistic. Ultimately, Ye didn’t find it fair that people were so transfixed on the lyrics. In reality, he argued that a lot of rappers were doing it for effect rather than to depict their real lives.
“I think America just needs to get real when it comes to the way our kids speak and communicate. They need to understand what happens in rap. 2Pac and Biggie might talk about violence, but in action movies, there are stuntmen who actually have died on set. The amount of people who talk about guns versus who actually uses them is not even close in this millennium,” Kanye West explained.
Kanye West Addressed the Anti-Hip-Hop Crowd in 2007 Interview
Ye continued with his film analogy, arguing that at some point, you have to admire the craftsmanship. When you hear a record, you should be blown away by the music and wonder how it was made. At the end of the day, any profanity and social ideas come closer to home than you would ever get from a song or an album.
“People need to understand that hip-hop that has gun talk is just for entertainment; similar to if you were watching a movie. Film schools don’t have anything against movies with violence,” Kanye West emphasized. “If you can approach hip-hop from a standpoint of ‘How did they put this together?’ and get past the fact that they use profanity, realize that you are a reflection of your parents, more so than the music. Let’s get more into the music itself.”
Lastly, Kanye West found that all of this would be a good way to encourage music education. That way, parents could develop their child’s creative intuition and hone their discernment. “How does Dr. Dre, a musical genius, layer all these sounds? What about engineering and Pro Tools and the poetry aspect? We can teach about hip-hop history, we can teach about legends, hip-hop theory. It’s been around so long that textbooks can be written about it. This is a perfect time to capitalize on and get kids excited about [music] education,” Ye argued.
The post Kanye West Once Explained Why ‘America Just Needs To Get Real’ When Talking About Hip-Hop in 2007 Interview appeared first on VICE.
