I am sure that Yorkshire Pudding visitors will be delighted to learn that at yesterday's Grammy Awards, the "song of the year" category was won by Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us". It is widely acknowledged that thirty seven year old Kendrick is the second greatest rap artist of all time after Jay-Z. Not only did "Not Like Us" win "song of the year", it also won "record of the year" which is of course something very different.
You must have heard "Not Like Us"? Surely you have. In the song, Kendrick Lamar reveals his rapping genius and his lyrical brilliance. He's like the Percy Bysshe Shelley of the rapping world.
People will be humming "Not Like Us" far off into the future because that's what happens with great songs isn't it? First of all, I am going to put up a video of "Not Like Us"- just in case you missed it somehow and then I will copy and paste in a sample of the incredible lyrics ...
Say, Drake, I hear you like 'em young
You better not ever go to cell block one
To any bitch that talk to him and they in love
Just make sure you hide your lil' sister from him
They tell me Chubbs the only one that get your hand-me-downs
And Party at the party playin' with his nose now
And Baka got a weird case, why is he around?
Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles
Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, Dot, fuck 'em up
Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, I'ma do my stuff
Why you trollin' like a bitch? Ain't you tired?
Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A minor
⦿
As you may have already guessed, I was being facetious about "Not Like Us". I have always detested rap music and imagined that by now the trend would have died a death.
"Not Like Us" is typically delivered in such a swift, badly enunciated manner that you just cannot make out the words. And when you read the lyrics - as with the sample above - you seem to find aggression, rudeness and banality.
But is there something amiss with my judgement? Am I straitjacketed by my age and my white Anglo Saxon perspective? Is there an element of subconscious racism in my distaste for the rap recordings of Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and all the others whose fake names interest me as much as what is languishing in our rubbish bin?
It's hard to know. Maybe I should be more charitable and open-minded about rap music - make more of an effort to appreciate it as, apparently, millions of rap fans do. However, at present, I must be honest, I find all rap songs pretty much the same - impenetrable, superficial, nasty and inherently forgettable. How "Not Like Us" could become both the "song of the year" and the "record of the year" is beyond me. Let's sing along...
Mm
Mm-mm
He a fan, he a fan, he a fan (Mm)
He a fan, he a fan, he a
Freaky-ass nigga, he a 69 God
Freaky-ass nigga, he a 69 God
Hey, hey, hey, hey, run for your life
Hey, hey, hey, hey, run for your life
Apparently Kendrick Lamar and Drake have some long standing feud, that's part of what the song is about. The song is shit, in my opinion. I'd never heard it before, but upon hearing it, I can attest that is in fact shit.
ReplyDeleteYes. I knew about the ongoing conflict between the two (very rich) pop figures.
DeleteI thought this was going to be about Don Kendrick, long ago Reader in Psychology at Hull, and originator of The Kendrick Battery.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a very different kind of song.
DeleteUgh. I guess there's no accounting for taste, but this is just...dreadful.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that I am not alone in my distaste.
DeleteI made it through the first 15 seconds of the song, but blech. Awful. I love disco, alternative rock, classic rock, classical, some folk, catchy pop tunes, etc. I have eclectic tastes. However, I HATE country and most jazz whereas many people love those two genres. I had students who adored rap. I worry much more about the messages than I do the style of the "music."
ReplyDeleteI bet that Hugh MacDiarmid could not produce poetry to match the work of Kendrick Lamar! Thanks for calling by again Margaret.
DeleteAlthough I don't always understand Chris' poetry because of the Scots language, it is beautifully written. The one on his tombstone (which I visited) is particularly lovely.
DeleteI'll hae nae haufway hoose, but aye be whaur
Extremes meet--it's the one way I ken
To dodge the cursed conceit o being' richt
That damns the vast majority o' men.
Hey Margaret! I just found you on the "In This Life" blog - a post about when you visited Langholm in September 2019 - with a photo of the gravestone too.
DeleteMy Scottish blogger friend and her husband took me on a CM Grieve tour which was a highlight of my trip! I even bought my dad a mug from Langholm that he treasured.
DeleteHow special that trip must have been - before COVID, before Ukraine, before the ongoing terror in Palestine and Israel. Amazing to think that Christopher was born in the 1890s.
DeleteYes, it was very special! Chris was born in 1892 and my grandfather, his cousin John, in 1890. My great-grandfather Archibald and Chris' father James (I think?) were brothers.
DeleteMy opinion on music, we like what we like and I don't think one can grow to like a genre when you just don't. I will instantly upon hearing either like a song or dislike, it doesn't change. I like several types, Rap doesn't happen to be one of them.
ReplyDeleteI agree. We like what we like. We have little control over that.
DeleteWisely, I have not clicked on the video. Like you, I don't get the appeal of Rap; here in Germany, we have a scene of (pseudo) Gangsta Rap where the (almost exclusively) young men take pride in coming up with the most sexist, violent and vulgar lyrics. What a difference to old school rap from the late 1970s! Have you ever listened to Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", Africa Bambaata, Wuf Ticket or Grandmaster Flash's "The Message"? Rapper's Delight is one of my favourite songs from my youth. It is witty, not nasty at all, and I wish Rap as a musical genre would have developed along those lines instead of become the nastiness it seems to be nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI think that some of Kendrick Lamar's songs should be banned because of the blatant bad language - often hidden in the speediness and bad pronunciation.
DeleteI tried to listen and made it through maybe a whole minute, but that was more than enough. I detest rap and It's not because of the singers or anything to do with race, it's simply because it seems to be violence based, it seems angry. I nuch prefer happier music, things that make me smile, clap my hands, tap my toes, want to get up and dance.
ReplyDeleteYour tastes in music are certainly more wholesome Elsie.
Deletenow, there's rap music and there's rap music..... one the one hand i hate a lot of rap..... but there are some real wordsmiths out there..... i consider the Beastie Boys to have been a great example of what you can do by using well constructed rhyme..... i mean, who else could build chateuneuf du pape into a song or i dunno.... here's a sample that i always enjoy:
ReplyDelete"If you try to knock me, you'll get mocked
I'll stir fry you in my wok
Your knees'll start shaking and your fingers pop
Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock"
Wow! Sheer poetry! Eat your heart out Simon Armitage! The only wrap music I like is Christmas carols when I am wrapping presents.
Delete'Middle England perspective?' You could say that, but I wont. It seems to me that rap is a product of a violent mish-mash of emotive disorder bought on by the young. Hopefully they grow out of it. It definitely isn't part of the European culture but I just registered this morning that Beyonce had also won a Grammy in the Country and Western section and I don't like that either.
ReplyDeleteMany young Europeans (including the British) see rap music as the sound of their culture even though it came from the other side of the Atlantic.
DeleteMC Hammer sang 'You can't touch this', in the 90s. That was the only rap music I liked. I detest rap music, and while Lamar's song is an astonishing musical choice, it isn't even a visually interesting video .
ReplyDeleteI might write some rap lyrics about the mean streets of Melbourne and living in a high rise block.
DeleteI didn't click on the video because I detest rap music. I hate the lyrics and the "music." The minute I began reading your entry, I knew you were being facetious, which gave me a good smile on this Tuesday morning.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you and I should make more effort to enjoy rap music - discover what the attraction is.
DeleteI have tried. A hard "no" for me!
DeleteLook- rap is a genre that does not belong to any of us here as far as I can tell. IT IS NOT OUR MUSIC, just as the Beatles and Rolling Stones were not our parents' music. We do not have the experiences or sorts of lives from which rap sprung. Can we agree on that? And to criticize that which we absolutely can not understand is ridiculous. Don't like rap? Don't listen to it. A lot of people do like it and do listen to it. But to be so very disdainful of it, to call it "impenetrable" and "nasty" serves only to show our ignorance about a culture that may not be ours but is certainly other's.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your reaction Ms Moon. Of course I respect your opinion and I will take your thoughts on board but I wish I could hear from someone who actually likes rap music. It's a strange mystery to me even though I have enjoyed a wide variety of musical styles from different parts of our planet.
DeleteWhy would any of the readers here have any understanding or fondness for Rap? I repeat- this is NOT our music. And perhaps that is the point of it all. I know that when our parents made such ridiculous statements about rock and roll like, " That's not music. It all sounds the same. Why is it so loud? Those guys should get a haircut! They look like girls. " we loved our music even more. We did not want them to understand it. It was ours and it spoke of the things we were feeling, we had experienced. Our hopes. Our dreams.
DeleteWe did not need their approval for our icons like Bob Dylan ("he can't even sing!") any more than Kendrick Lamar needs ours.
In fact, I think Bob said it best when he wrote, "And don't criticize
What you can't understand."
The times they are a changing. And always will be.
I contend that it is permissible to comment upon any song that is judged to be "the song of the year" at The Grammys. Punk rock, soul and country and western were, for example, not "my" music either but I have appreciated many of the songs and artists which emerged from these genres.
DeleteLittle of it makes sense, grammatically, or poetically. I try to avoid living like a thug, live like a thug, die like a thug as my grandmother would have said.
ReplyDelete"Live like a thug, die like a thug" could be a line from a Kendrick Lamar song. I can imagine you and The Wicked Hamster up there on stage rapping away.
DeleteI agree with Mary. My parents did not like the music that I liked. Rap does not need your approval and there are so many upsetting things in the world right now. Why add more hate?
ReplyDeleteI was not aware that I was adding hate Ellen. I thought I was just broadcasting the fact that this song was the winner at Sunday night's Grammys. Do you like it or dislike it and why?
DeleteI couldn't care less who won the Grammy's and have never heard of this rapper (I won't call him singer, because he isn't). Out of interest, not wishing to decry something I've never heard, I clicked onto the video and after all of possibly five whole seconds (it may have been less, but I was too desperate to switch it off) I realised that it's something I shan't be listening to again. Nor will I be singing it as I amble down the street with my zimmer frame!
ReplyDeleteI remember the similar outbursts over Screaming Lord Sutch, The Sex Pistols and other rubbish groups and singers in the past. Each generation has it's own music and we oldies can criticise all we like. We'll just wait until they grow out of it! In years to come this generation's rappers very likely won't approve of the "music" their grandchildren's make. Let's be thankful we won't be around to hear it.
I'm now going to recover by listening to "Il Divo"!
A lot of our young people do not like rap either.
DeleteI don't "get" rap music either and when it turns up I usually turn it off, switch channel, or take the opportunity to go and make a cup of tea (or something)...
ReplyDeleteSending you love on the day of death in Orebro.
DeleteI have to agree w/Mary. Not my cup of tea but it springs from a whole world that I am not a part of. What I do like is learning about different types of music; why they came about, what they mean. I listen to Kim Namjoon. A South Korean singer. He is brilliant; a huge supporter of arts and literature--and a rap artist. He spoke once of how rap--rhyme and poetry--kept him sane. Music means different things to different people.
ReplyDeleteAnd I forgot: the first time I heard Not Like Us, I was like what the hell is this? And now, every time it comes on the radio, I crank it up and dance w/the dogs in the kitchen. I know your other readers will shame me but we get a kick out of it.....
ReplyDeleteDave and I often argue about whether rap is art. I say it is, and just because I don't like it makes it no less valid; he swears it's not. In any case, it's safe to say that neither of us are fans.
ReplyDelete(This is where I feel like an old person, grumbling, "These kids today!")
It it's any good it will survive. Over the centuries 'new' music has been composed and been shouted down. Most failed, but quite a lot survived - Mozart, Britten, for example. Time will tell.
ReplyDelete