Bling bling - a new thing or hip hop tradition?

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people are always talking about bling blingism killing hip hop, but aren't gold chains and money bragging a part of hip hop culture since day one, since dress code (no sneakers) parties in the 70s and 'rapper's delight' & Run-DMC (gold chains 'n shit :)
any thoughts?

― phantom of the opera, Friday, 25 July 2003 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Someone wrote something in an eariler thread about how the phrase "jumped the shark" has jumped the shark. That's a shame; i still really want to use it sometimes.

Like now. This thread and everything about it has jumped the shark.

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Friday, 25 July 2003 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

i see no equivalent to the wearing-stolen-mercedes-hood-ornament thing(fucking up rich people's shit and making that a new kind of status), or the wearing-a-clock-instead-of-a-rope trend (knowing "what time it is", knowledge and prescience as a status symbol instead of purchasing power)

people always had shmancy parties, what does that have to do with anything?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 25 July 2003 19:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Basically, poor people like to wear sharp clothes because they have have to sell their capacity to labour or sell cocaine or join the army. So, when they have cars, they put shiny wheels on their cars and new paint and they drive slow, nice cars instead of fast, nice cars like rich people drive and not sensible, nice cars like people in between. When you work eight hours a day not at a desk you watch cars go by and talk to your co-workers about them. 'Could a Mustang beat a Camaro, both bone stock?' 'Depends. Is the Mustang a GT?' 'If it's not a GT, it's a girl's car.' And Baby bought fifty cars and painted them red because he saw them driving by and he wrote so many songs about them and won a car show. While rich people listen to Phish they are starving and people who listen to Phish have never been to a laundromat or anything and they wear dirty clothes (BUT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH NOT GOING TO LAUNDROMATS, THE TWO PARTS OF THE SENTENCE AREN'T REALLY LINKED EXCEPT BY WHATEVER) and they want to buy Ford Tauruses and they don't care about the wheels or chrome. That's very basic stuff. People always get to explain it, though. So I did!

And when black people first started talking over dance music they didn't know that anyone would really mind. And then everyone got interested and they said, Oh, I guess we can't act like poor people anymore. And now things have gotten back to normal. Shiny suits and the Southern United States said, Hey, you guys can be poor again and talk about Cristal poppin' in the stretch Navigatuh on the radio again and lie about your cars.

― d k (d k), Friday, 25 July 2003 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Conspicuous consumption has a long long history.

― j.lu (j.lu), Friday, 25 July 2003 20:48 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.calamusbooks.com/newsletters/v2_43/Caligula200.jpg

― s1utsky (slutsky), Friday, 25 July 2003 20:53 (twenty-two years ago)

conspicuous consumption indeed has a long history, especially in hip-hop. the reason so many critics are frothing at the mouth about bling-culture now is that it's supposedly lost whatever transgressive anti/post-marxist "gettin paid after so so long" edge it once held now that it is the culture at large, even though it never really had any to begin with, since, y'know the poor are still gettin poorer and the rich richer and those of us stuck in between get to decide what philosophical edge to read into pop culture and when.

oh, and just for tom: dk has jumped the trifean shark

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Friday, 25 July 2003 20:55 (twenty-two years ago)

how many celebrities from the ghetto?

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 25 July 2003 21:00 (twenty-two years ago)

"Get funky, make money" -- Funky 4 + 1, "That's the Joint," 1981.

Those Sugarhill and Enjoy guys bragged about big cars a lot, too.

― chuck, Friday, 25 July 2003 21:00 (twenty-two years ago)

yeh but Jay-Z and Diddy make em look like hobos

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 25 July 2003 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

cuz they're advancing the game, yo

― oops (Oops), Friday, 25 July 2003 21:23 (twenty-two years ago)

"the reason so many critics are frothing at the mouth about bling-culture now is that it's supposedly lost whatever transgressive anti/post-marxist "gettin paid after so so long" edge"

See, these guys (critics) think money is dirty & had to interpret the flaunting of it as transgression, but that sounds all wrong to me when applied to hip hop. Cash rules everything around me = the way things are, in many ways - not just in hip hop, in general.

What I would like to see is all this bling blingism and flaunting of wealth change into a gift culture, in which one is esteemed not for the money/jewelry/cars/etc you have, but for the richness of the gifts you give to others. That would be cool. Missy Elliott gives Jadakiss a custom Escalade! Eminem gives Missy Elliott a platinum Rolex! Who will top that? J-Lo gives Louis Vuitton handbags to all her fans! Why, I loved "Jenny from the Block," honestly I did.

― daria g (daria g), Friday, 25 July 2003 21:35 (twenty-two years ago)

jess, I have trouble getting into the sort of flow of things. That's why it's hit or miss. If I posted more often, a couple a day, I could sort of balance it out. Things would sort of get level. But since I don't do that it's either really good or really bad. You have to realize that I realize what's happening. Your snide asides don't help anyone, they make me feel bad, when I already feel bad.

― d k (d k), Friday, 25 July 2003 21:47 (twenty-two years ago)

It could be: 'Your snide asides don't help anyone, they make me feel , when I already feel bad.'

― d k (d k), Friday, 25 July 2003 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Nevermind, then.

― dlk (d k), Friday, 25 July 2003 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.mtv.com/shared/media/news/images/s/Slick_Rick/sq-slick-rick-perf-def.jpg

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Friday, 25 July 2003 22:14 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.disco-disco.com/images/ericb-rakim.gif

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Friday, 25 July 2003 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000005X5Y.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

(Low-key bling and SHOTGUN SHELL BANDOLIER!!!)

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Friday, 25 July 2003 22:19 (twenty-two years ago)

where are the photos from the early-mid 90s?

― oops (Oops), Friday, 25 July 2003 22:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Biggie was very elusive and was therefore never actually caught on film

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Friday, 25 July 2003 22:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Cash Money Records invented and pioneered the term "bling bling". It initially described the reaction of light hitting and reflecting from one's "ice" (diamond incrusted jewellry), and "bling" is the imagined sound this process would make were it audible (the most famous example of "bling's" assumed amplification is from the song 'Bling Bling' by the Cash Money Records rapper B.G., in which the producer Mannie Fresh, actually inserted a high picthed "bling" sound effect into the chorus. See also Lil' Wayne's 'Shine'.) "Bling" is essentially a harmless, joyfull celebration of one's wealth.

― sean g, Saturday, 26 July 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

neat. it's like naming that sound effect that you see in anime a lot. light glinting off metal, jewels, etc.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Monday, 28 July 2003 02:22 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.mnc.net/norway/vebl.jpg

― adam (adam), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:27 (twenty-two years ago)

i thought all of the songs were about hubcaps these days. they keep spinning when the car stops!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111

― your null fame (yournullfame), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:40 (twenty-two years ago)

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