2.6 East Coast hardcore hip hop and the East Coast–West Coast feud.Still, gangsta rap has been assailed even by some black public figures, including Spike Lee, but first by pastor Calvin Butts and especially by activist C. Gangsta rap's defenders have variously characterized it as artistic depictions but not literal endorsements of real life in American ghettos, or suggested that some lyrics voice rage against social oppression or police brutality, and have often accused critics of hypocrisy and racial bias. Gangsta rap has been recurrently accused of promoting disorderly conduct and broad criminality, especially assault, homicide, and drug dealing, as well as misogyny, promiscuity, and materialism. Dre, rapper Snoop Dogg, and their G-funk sound, gangsta rap took the rap genre's lead and became mainstream, popular music.
Gangsta rap's pioneers were Schoolly D of Philadelphia in 1985, Ice-T of Los Angeles in 1986, and especially N.W.A in 1988. Many gangsta rappers flaunt associations with real street gangs, like the Crips and the Bloods. Thanks for reading this, and I'll post more if this doesn't turn into a slam fest as I've seen many in-depth analyses become.Gangsta rap or gangster rap, initially called reality rap, emerged in the mid- to late 1980s as a controversial hip hop subgenre whose lyrics assert the culture and values typical of American street gangs and street hustlers. However, not all of it was probably what Trent intended. There's a LOT of stuff I just wrote above. "We are just zeros and ones" is a reference to binary, the foundation for most technology (That which doesn't rely on hexadecimal, or some other base within structures of binary) When you break EVERYTHING down into a game of 20-questions, everything is YES or NO, ON or OFF, 1 or 0. When an asteroid hits Earth, or the Sun goes Red Giant on our asses (millions of years from now), or when the Milky Way collides with Andromeda, or when a rapture occurs, blah blah blah this will keep going on and on. Energy can't be created nor destroyed (well, in quantum physics things get "iffy" ) Well, what about society? All of our work will eventually amount to nothing, so to speak. There's a theory that everything is in equilibrium. I'm buying Year Zero the second it hits shelves.Īnyways, back to Zero-Sum. I especially love how the entire album is up for streaming on their website. THAT got me worried, but when I heard the radio station play Survivalism, I just closed my eyes and smiled. I also heard rumors that he was working alongside a rapper. I'll be honest, at that point I was worried. When I read some interviews involving Trent, he stated that he was going off in a different direction, and that the change may defer some fans. Listen carefully to the piano part in this song and tell me what mathematical ratio it reminds you of. Similarly, I've noticed that there are many mathematical allusions in his work as well. I could go on all night comparing and contrasting each song and finding even the most minute allusion or reference to prior work. That's why NIN is my favorite band.Īnyways, nomatter how deviant from his last work his new style becomes, there is still an allusion or two in each new album.Įven Deeper + Right Where it Belongs vs Zero-Sum Instead, he is paving his own path- a lesson in itself. I know I'm reiterating many other people here, but he does not cater to his fans.
That piano melody in the beginning of the song sounds an awful lot like "Right Where it Belongs," AND like "Even Deeper." I've noticed over the years that Trent's musical style evolves. Hmm, listening to it right now, I must wonder. By "They," does Trent refer to missiles, a Biblical rapture, or some other form of technology we haven't discovered yet? I believe that is up to the listener. General CommentWhen listening to this song, one's interpretation of the first line carries through to the rest of the lyrics. May God have mercy on our dirty little hearts And it feels like we're living in that split-second of a car crash