I wish this was just a little more developed, artistically. It's a fantastic idea with good sounds and images. But it's a rough draft of what it should be.
Isn't a lot of hip-hop a rough draft of other music?
- The beats and rhythms are usually scaled down or lifted directly from Funk.
I think it was James Brown who said, "They only know a few of the lessons."
- The lyricism mimics C-grade poetry, and the themes are often puerile. Say Eminem's 200 degrees of anger, or Tupac's musings. To be fair, I like Tupac's poem "The Rose that Grew from Concrete," although it is simple and terse, I think he had good wishes for the world at that time.
- Experimentation is rare and is usually derivative, although there are some good/edgy hip/hop artists out there, but they are few.
This is partly a critique of modern music, however, hop-hop is often selling a dancable beat, low-grade bawdy notions, or a faux street mentality that is fair to describe as thuggish.
To be totally fair, metal is often also selling a "tough" mentality, and a lot of music is tied up in identity. From feel good folk to electronica a lot of people require a certain mentality to join the music, and a certain music to fit the mentality.
Most modern pop is a derivative of the driving disco rhythms, scaled down, matched with simple melodies and harmonies that are polished to take off any hard edges, and matched with beautiful or rugged singers who either swoon or growl through an auto-tuner about vapid party lifestyles, missing one's ex soooo much, or taking in the excesses of "tonight".
It is purely a product often selling the lowest of emotions, musical arrangements, and ideas in order to get "stuck in your head" and promote the opposite of real feeling or thought.
When I hear it, to be honest, I hear fear and desperation, an escape from seeing anything through the vaporous shadows.