rolling gun sounds thread

the point "hey look guys not EVERYONE cares about asap rocky!" is a pretty basic & meaningless one and one that privileges the type of rap you listen to & the type of listeners you find authentic, just like i could c/p any number of blogs and websites that aren't covering fat joe's the darkside vol 11 and go "huh, no fat joe here. isn't that something."

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 1, 2011 12:03 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no, its about observing the privilege of the tastemakers & people who decide what the stories are going to be for the next XYZ months, how these things are DECIDED UPON by a small group rather than coming from the ground up, the small networking game that makes it possible that we even hear about these artists

i dont fucking privilege the opinions of rapradar's joe budden fans, but that doesnt mean i think asap rocky's fans in the magazine editing world are any better.

magazine editors & bloggers aren't rap fans, i guess

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 1, 2011 12:01 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is a willful misreading

so wrong. just because you aren't part of the groundswell doesn't mean it didnt happen or that it only happened among blogging elites

it was very much an organic movement, just as OF was and jsut as Frank Ocean was

the gatekeepers simply saw it coming and co-opted it in each instance

again, the culture has moved on. this is where "grassroots" comes from now

LOL

it didnt have anything to do w/ every ny publication following RNT's tumblr feed

when there's a bottleneck like that i have a lot of trouble seeing it as 'grassroots' bro sorry

no, its about observing the privilege of the tastemakers & people who decide what the stories are going to be for the next XYZ months, how these things are DECIDED UPON by a small group rather than coming from the ground up, the small networking game that makes it possible that we even hear about these artists

― The boyboy young jess (D-40), Tuesday, November 1, 2011 1:12 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

and tell me again about what this has to do with the readers of ELLIOT WILSON's blog

no it has everything to with that. the media is on tumblr. when they notice a - FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD - meme spreading throughout they start paying attention to it. eventually it gets too big too ignore so they start covering it, then he got a deal

you think he got a deal because he has no fans? just ink?

interesting discussion, I ain't gonna argue w/ppl but there's interesting stuff in it - deej seems to be saying that grassroots can't make for actual popularity, which seems like a weird thing to say...but then I think people have a very romantic idea of 1) there being stuff that isn't from its inception self-aware & tied into publicity and 2) their own ability to tell grassroots from "hype"

the gatekeepers simply saw it coming and co-opted it in each instance

again, the culture has moved on. this is where "grassroots" comes from now

― surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally, Tuesday, November 1, 2011 1:16 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

i think this is pretty much otm

RNT did a brilliant job of branding this . he spoke the language of the people that spread shit. same way OF did.

it's not a conspiracy. it's arithmetic

drake is doing the same thing now. WTT did it 3 months ago.

and around we go

I think people have a very romantic idea of 1) there being stuff that isn't from its inception self-aware & tied into publicity and 2) their own ability to tell grassroots from "hype"

ikr

as long as it's not as egregious as beginning to hype an act the moment the press release lands in your inbox i don't care, but what i find vaguely confusing is that asap rocky...like, can't rap. not at all. "purple swag" is just a nothing of a track.

no it has everything to with that. the media is on tumblr. when they notice a - FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD - meme spreading throughout they start paying attention to it. eventually it gets too big too ignore so they start covering it, then he got a deal

you think he got a deal because he has no fans? just ink?

― surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally, Tuesday, November 1, 2011 12:23 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you're so caught up in the vortex of marketing that you cease to see music outside of it as worthwhile

2 Chainz is a joke because he doesnt know how to market himself to the right people on tumblr!!

deej tbf no one is really bringing quality of music into this taxonomical argument, except you

so what is your point, that the reason ASAP is popular w/ certain people is good marketing? OK

can i ask what statement of mine youre disgreeing with?

2 Chainz is a joke because he doesnt know how to market himself to the right people on tumblr!!

― The boyboy young jess (D-40), Tuesday, November 1, 2011 1:31 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark

that surfboard dudes totally would hold this opinion

he said almost exactly that -- 'a joke' was a quote btw

so what is your point, that the reason ASAP is popular w/ certain people is good marketing? OK

― The boyboy young jess (D-40), Tuesday, November 1, 2011 1:53 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol... didn't this whole conversation start last night because you were asking why people give a shit about asap rocky

its crazy how much more hype he has than any of these other artists right now

― The boyboy young jess (D-40), Monday, October 31, 2011 8:15 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

how does that work, seriously

― The boyboy young jess (D-40), Monday, October 31, 2011 8:15 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah but telling me the answer is 'marketing' is meaningless, and telling me that 'tumblr is the grassroots now' is bullshit

tumblr might be the way to get a mag editors attention quickly

i mean, i know a lot of people like to credit blog with making already-rich-famous-and-connected Drake a star, but I've yet to see any evidence that working purely off of this kind of blog & tumblr marketing hype has broken a big artist anywhere except with media

yeah but telling me the answer is 'marketing' is meaningless, and telling me that 'tumblr is the grassroots now' is bullshit

― The boyboy young jess (D-40), Tuesday, November 1, 2011 2:06 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i don't know man... what do you want to hear? and honestly "marketing" is a pretty general term to describe the various points that i made all through last night

i mean, i know a lot of people like to credit blog with making already-rich-famous-and-connected Drake a star, but I've yet to see any evidence that working purely off of this kind of blog & tumblr marketing hype has broken a big artist anywhere except with media

― The boyboy young jess (D-40), Tuesday, November 1, 2011 2:07 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

right, i'm not gonna sit here & say that ASAP rocky is a "big artist" or that he's going to be a "big artist" or whatever. but you asked "how does this hype work?" and i (and surfboards or w/e) tried to answer that. i'm talking about asap rocky's popularity strictly on your terms.

and telling me that 'tumblr is the grassroots now' is bullshit

― The boyboy young jess (D-40), Tuesday, November 1, 2011 2:06 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

tumblr might be the way to get a mag editors attention quickly

― The boyboy young jess (D-40), Tuesday, November 1, 2011 2:06 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

right, "grassroots" is a weird term. i do think that ASAP has been given a big shortcut to fame... he has the ear of the industry and that can still be a powerful thing. personally i don't know if he's talented enough or if his music is focused enough on being 'pop' for him to be a star etc etc

i am more interested in whether or not rap hype is going to start mirroring indie rock hype -- we'll see tho

is asap rocky some sort of reference aesop rock and/or has anyone already pointed this out?

yeah i don't know... i mean it almost has to be?

His name is Rakim, his crew is ASAP. It's a coincidence

i don't know... there's no way that yams has never heard of aesop rock

chances are he had the name before they hooked up though.

The 2 Chainz tape has a Kreayshawn feature. Gotta get that blog hype

oh fuck

btw guys, not to be all WHEN U R OLD U WILL GET IT but after you've seen the hype machine roll over the NEW HOT SHINY and dispose of your favorites as if they were bodies not even worth burying for the twentieth cycle, you'll either be cynical and sad enough not to care enough to do the strawman 90 post argument or you'll be completely insane. so better days ahead in any case.

2 chainz is funny because his name is Tity Boi.

also because he's pissing on his mixtape cover.

hes pissing while using his smartphone
its a good cover i think we can all agree. v identifiable

forks so OTM it's not even funny

yeah obviously

true religion is also funny

yeah obviously = good cover

why do lex luger and southside need to produce the same song? seems to be working really really well the way it's going individually

come one man. this guy is lol (my exact word, not joke) because h has songs called "Viagra" with the hook "i be goin hard - viagra"

xpforks i dont think asap rocky is anyone here's favourite, reactions to the mixtape were pretty tame. otoh the self-admitted dearth of quality in legit alternatives w/ any national presence proposed by deej and retreat into regional obscurities like max b & king louie, caring about 'grassroots,' suddenly caring about whether or not an artist is from the projects, makes it a bit easier to get excited about asap

i dont understand that post. regional obscurities like max b?

"suddenly caring about whether or not an artist is from the projects"

this is a total misunderstanding of what i posted. tons of random rappers are from the projects. i thought i made it clear after -- this was w/ a debate where surfboards was like 'theres no narrative to LEP' & i was grounding his story in a specific place, and the story isnt that count was from the ickes but that he was running them, and they have a large place in chicago history much the way queensbridge might in nyc

and king louie is a brand new artist, of course hes 'obscure' -- much as asap rocky is obscure to anyone not on tumblr or in our internet rap music nerd world

in fact, the entire premise of that post is bogus. Max B would have made a much better 'national rapper' prospect than asap, as im sure even ASAP himself would admit, until he took himself out of the equation by getting arrested. id argue on purely musical terms that i think king louie is a much more promising talent than asap, although obviously with the hierarchies the way they are i might just be shouting into the wind