Chicago Hip-Hop Murders and the Media Blackout (rap threads on SS-R)

[hogginthefogg]

Rhymefest penend a guest blog post about Keef a few months back: http://donnienicole.com/2012/06/27/chief-keef-is-the-bomb/





I guess he's not still doing his alleged ghostwriting gig if he's going after someone 'Ye's working with.

 

[Jonny_Paycheck]

p_gunn said:





Chief Keef is a 17 year old kid who, as far as i know, has pretty active gang affiliations... everything about his image and his music promotes that lifestyle... right when Chicago is going thru a murder epidemic... it makes me sad when i see pictures and videos of him and i simply can't picture him making it to be 30 years old... i don't want to see him make a "stop the violence" song and i don't want him to not eat, but it gives me the creeps that his music (which to my old ass just sounds "ok") has blown up like this... will all these "fans" give a fuck about drill music in 5 years, or will be they move onto whatever ghetto scene du jour they can find on the internet?







nail:head





also, there's shit like this in every hood without the publicity... to a certain extent yes, it's because these folks in Chicago are writing about their own (?) scene, but part of it is certainly "ghetto scene du jour".

 

[deej]

what's up guys.





curious what you mean by 'ghetto scene du jour.' i think musically there's something interesting happening in chicago right now, that wasn't happening a few years ago, and that isn't happening in other cities at the moment. a few years back, it seemed like it was happening in the bay, but it got overtaken by media enthusiasm for lil b.





this is one of the most interesting stories in rap music happening this year; i guess the competing story is the dj mustard/rachet stuff although personally i dont find that music as interesting.





"will these 'fans' give a fuck about drill music in five years"


--i dont know, will you give a fuck about whatever music you're listening to right now in five years? I imagine like anything, some i will, some i wont. just like i still listen to organized konfusion but havent pulled out a cella dwellers record in forever. i dont need to pledge lifelong allegiance to drill music if its musically at its most interesting right at this moment, do i? seems like an unfair standard

 

[HarveyCanal]

Hi, deej.

 

[deej]

Hey Harvey.





I don't really have a problem with anyone who thinks this stuff isn't for them. It does hit close to home. Although I don't think it's any more nihilistic than plenty of rap that I've heard people rep for over the years on this forum, from Spice 1 to the Hot Boyz.





It seems to me that the objections assume that there's nothing special about the music here, that people's interest is pure spectacle. I'm sure that's true for some, but that makes it pretty similar to the Clipse / Jeezy stuff from a few years ago. But there's still something musically unique happening here right now. Say what you will, but Louie, Durk and Keef all sound like original voices, and aren't overly derivative of any particular artist.





imo

 

[vintageinfants]

it's very hard to accept even the suggestion that cheif keef knows he is being nihilistic.





university educated white boys have ruined hip hop forever.

 

[deej]

what a weird post

 

[HarveyCanal]

deej said:Hey Harvey.





I don't really have a problem with anyone who thinks this stuff isn't for them. It does hit close to home. Although I don't think it's any more nihilistic than plenty of rap that I've heard people rep for over the years on this forum, from Spice 1 to the Hot Boyz.





It seems to me that the objections assume that there's nothing special about the music here, that people's interest is pure spectacle. I'm sure that's true for some, but that makes it pretty similar to the Clipse / Jeezy stuff from a few years ago. But there's still something musically unique happening here right now. Say what you will, but Louie, Durk and Keef all sound like original voices, and aren't overly derivative of any particular artist.





imo




I agree wholeheartedly. While there are indeed plenty of misguided suburban clowns out there that misinterpret the worth of voices from places they will never even visit, they certainly don't make the world go 'round. In other words, whether Pitchfork or whoever temporarily latches themselves onto these sort of localized scenes and even help make them more popular to crossover audiences, their whole action remains just that, crossover i.e. secondary to the core market more closely attached to the scene at hand. And to me, it's a fools game to dismiss the core just because the crossovers are doing what they always do, which is not quite getting it.

 

[DocMcCoy]

deej said: Say what you will, but Louie, Durk and Keef all sound like original voices, and aren't overly derivative of any particular artist.




I agree with this. There's superficial echoes of Waka on some of their stuff, but otherwise it sounds like a style that's developed in comparative isolation. There was already plenty that was weird and unsettling about Savage before I knew a single thing about Reese's personal life.





On a tangentially related note, Young Chop's beat for I Think I Like That is one of the best things I've heard all year. I may have mentioned this before.

 

[Jonny_Paycheck]

well to the extent that you are asking me (maybe you are not - I didn't pen the term "ghetto scene du-jour" originally but it does describe for me a certain thing that happens w/r/t critics and fans not geographically connected to said music scene but whose interests are temporarily piqued, later to be supplanted by similarly visceral music from other violent/impoverished/terrible places)





I think it's good to separate Chicago writers covering local music (whether it's "hey this stuff is happening in our city" or "hey this is musically interesting to me") versus the kind of trend-fawn that seems to happen every few years with the aforementioned scenes. Nobody is really giving a shit about Bay Area music now to the extent that they did several years ago, as a native/enthusiast of Bay Area music this seems to be the way it always goes every few years. Contrasting a regional scene's ebbs and flows with some marginalia like the Cella Dwellas is misguided I think.





I can see the voices being legitimate and original but it doesn't add up to good music to me. I am of course a 35 y/o white dude record enthusiast and deduce what you will about my tastes from that (likes "melody", "overarching concept", "drum loops", "songwriting") [/snark]





And you're right, you know, a lot of shit like Spice 1 (whose first record is a favorite) and Clipse (the merit of whose first two albums I have argued vigorously on this site) is thematically similar but I just find there to be a much greater distance between the art and the person in those instances than I hear in this stuff. Maybe that's what makes it so affecting, to all parties.

 

[DJ_Enki]

So how long before "drill" becomes an EDM genre? 5 years?

 

[white_tea]

Your move, Pitchfork.





I think we can all agree that hosting an interview at a shooting range was, uh, RPOTJJ (reflected poorly on their journalistic judgment).

Cook County prosecutors trying to subpoena an online video showing South Side rapper Chief Keef holding a rifle at a gun range argued in court today that the uncut version of the footage is essential in determining whether the teen violated his probation.





The video was shot earlier this year when the 17-year-old rapper did an on-camera interview with Pitchfork Media, an Internet-based music publication, at a gun range in New York. In the video, Chief Keef, whose real name is Keith Cozart, is reportedly seen with a rifle.





Prosecutors have argued that the rapper violated the terms of his probation by holding that rifle following his conviction for pointing a gun at a Chicago cop last year.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-prosecutors-seek-raw-footage-chief-keef-gun-range-20121120,0,7226398.story

 

[HarveyCanal]

Next, Vice will do an article on Keef cooking up crack. But to Vice's credit, their reporter will likely then buy and smoke that crack.

 

[deej]

well to the extent that you are asking me (maybe you are not - I didn't pen the term "ghetto scene du-jour" originally but it does describe for me a certain thing that happens w/r/t critics and fans not geographically connected to said music scene but whose interests are temporarily piqued, later to be supplanted by similarly visceral music from other violent/impoverished/terrible places)





I think it's good to separate Chicago writers covering local music (whether it's "hey this stuff is happening in our city" or "hey this is musically interesting to me") versus the kind of trend-fawn that seems to happen every few years with the aforementioned scenes. Nobody is really giving a shit about Bay Area music now to the extent that they did several years ago, as a native/enthusiast of Bay Area music this seems to be the way it always goes every few years. Contrasting a regional scene's ebbs and flows with some marginalia like the Cella Dwellas is misguided I think.





I can see the voices being legitimate and original but it doesn't add up to good music to me. I am of course a 35 y/o white dude record enthusiast and deduce what you will about my tastes from that (likes "melody", "overarching concept", "drum loops", "songwriting") [/snark]





And you're right, you know, a lot of shit like Spice 1 (whose first record is a favorite) and Clipse (the merit of whose first two albums I have argued vigorously on this site) is thematically similar but I just find there to be a much greater distance between the art and the person in those instances than I hear in this stuff. Maybe that's what makes it so affecting, to all parties.

Yeah, I feel you on the national hipster population jumping on board but, fact is in the music industry right now, if you want to make a music career happen, these people (and all the mag editors and etc.) have to care about you, or you get stuck on the outside (like tons of regional rappers before). it's a fucked up system but it's also the reality. It doesn't matter what style or genre of rap, rappers want that Fader -> pitchfork love whether they're gangsters, backpackers or weirdos.





If ppl didn't give those guys so much cultural clout in the first place it wouldnt be an issue. But every time a Jay-Z reps for Grizzly Bear it just reinforces their status as the tastemakers in the industry & reifies the idea that music that is 'worthy' is being filtered thru a certain NYC-centered hipster myopia. I mean, if we werent writing about this it would just be another kitty pryde, action bronson or dominic lord taking up oxygen in that space.

 

[p_gunn]

well to the extent that you are asking me (maybe you are not - I didn't pen the term "ghetto scene du-jour" originally but it does describe for me a certain thing that happens w/r/t critics and fans not geographically connected to said music scene but whose interests are temporarily piqued, later to be supplanted by similarly visceral music from other violent/impoverished/terrible places)





I think it's good to separate Chicago writers covering local music (whether it's "hey this stuff is happening in our city" or "hey this is musically interesting to me") versus the kind of trend-fawn that seems to happen every few years with the aforementioned scenes. Nobody is really giving a shit about Bay Area music now to the extent that they did several years ago, as a native/enthusiast of Bay Area music this seems to be the way it always goes every few years. Contrasting a regional scene's ebbs and flows with some marginalia like the Cella Dwellas is misguided I think.





I can see the voices being legitimate and original but it doesn't add up to good music to me. I am of course a 35 y/o white dude record enthusiast and deduce what you will about my tastes from that (likes "melody", "overarching concept", "drum loops", "songwriting") [/snark]





And you're right, you know, a lot of shit like Spice 1 (whose first record is a favorite) and Clipse (the merit of whose first two albums I have argued vigorously on this site) is thematically similar but I just find there to be a much greater distance between the art and the person in those instances than I hear in this stuff. Maybe that's what makes it so affecting, to all parties.

this...





the bay area and the here today/gone tomorrow hype about hyphy is def one of the things i was thinking of w/ ghetto scene du jour... and yes, i get that it's fun to get swept up w/ enthusiasm about something you might not dig five years later, but something about endlessly trendhopping and then ignoring scene after scene seems very cynical... like despite the fact that i haven't seen or heard a word written about say, hyphy or baile funk in the last 5 years, i bet there is still great party music coming out of the bay and rio de janeiro... just like if the alt press stopped coming to chicago, all the kids there would still listen to keef...





it just seems like columbus discovering america, like hey, the shit was already there...





and yes, i get that in the internet era, everyone needs some sort of tastemaker approval to make big money and tour and stuff, it's been that way for years at this point...





the issue here is you have said tastemakers glorifying and reveling in the grimiest part of this stuff, most likely b/c it has zero affect on their own lives and somehow makes the music more legitimate... yes, let's take a 17 year old kid on parole to a shooting range, great idea... i am guessing said writers and editors, if they had a 17 year old cousin who was a bit of a fuck up, would probably not do the same thing...

 

[DocMcCoy]

This is a fascinating piece. It almost has me thinking how much of it David Simon and Ed Burns might have written into The Wire if they were to do it now.





Make sure you read it through to the end.

 

[hogginthefogg]

DocMcCoy said:This is a fascinating piece. It almost has me thinking how much of it David Simon and Ed Burns might have written into The Wire if they were to do it now.





Make sure you read it through to the end.




That story was absolutely chilling. Thank you for posting it, although I feel disturbed after having read it.

 

[ppadilha]

hogginthefogg saidocMcCoy said:This is a fascinating piece. It almost has me thinking how much of it David Simon and Ed Burns might have written into The Wire if they were to do it now.





Make sure you read it through to the end.




That story was absolutely chilling. Thank you for posting it, although I feel disturbed after having read it.




I had this open on a tab and got around to reading it a few days ago. What a crazy story, all this gang stuff in Chicago sounds absolutely insane.

 

[DocMcCoy]

Of all the outlets I might have expected to produce a restrained, thoughtful and enlightening documentary about what's been happening in Chicago in recent years, Worldstar was probably last on the list. But, hey, whaddya know?





[media]http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/embed/65971[/media]





Ignore the sensationalist blurb that accompanies it; this is worth 40 minutes of your time.

 

[Jimster]

Sadly, social-media-fuelled slayings not restricted to the US. I recall a similar story about a fatal stabbing in London a couple of years back.





It's depressing stuff, but as usual, the comments section always offers some kind of remedy for the mood of the article:

in Romania people are much more poor, but we don't have guns... so we try to study and work for money... instead of killing eachother.. :| how come in a country like mine, that has the reputation of a primitive country, there are less gangs? i think it's because we aren't allowed to have guns, like in america.





Also drugs are not related to gangs, gangs in my country usually deal with beggars, prostitution or human trafficking. drug dealers are peaceful people. it's just an idea, I'm willing to debate on this - I have never, ever seen a weapon shop in my country. If you have a hunting license you can buy a gun online or from Germany





And the gangs in my country don't even use guns, usually they have knifes, swords, axes or baseball bats...





Oh, and [Romanian] rappers usually rap about politics and social issues, about philosophy, humour... never about gangs and guns and cars and bitches and chains..





okay maybe sometimes they rap about bitches...