More messages, less candy rap

evil_seed

With Kanye West verse in the remix to his song "Diamonds are Forever" letting the world know about conflict diamonds and the suffering of the peoploe of Sierra Leon, do y'all think that more artists should be using their fame and substantial "power" in the hip hop/music industry to start shedding light and spreading knowledge of other bad goings on throughout the world?
We've just had Live 8 to stop poverty in Africa. Instead of rappers talkin bout guns, ho's and beefin with each other, they could really make a difference because hip-hop is so huge at the moment.
"Good Morning, this ain't Vietnam still
People lose hands, legs, arms for real
Little was known of Sierra Leone
And how it connect to the diamonds we own
When I speak of Diamonds in this song
I ain't talkin bout the ones that be glown
I'm talkin bout Rocafella, my home, my chain
These ain't conflict diamonds,is they Jacob? don't lie to me mayne
See, a part of me sayin' keep shinin',
How? when I know of the blood diamonds
Though it's thousands of miles away
Sierra Leone connect to what we go through today
Over here, its a drug trade, we die from drugs
Over there, they die from what we buy from drugs
The diamonds, the chains, the bracelets, the charmses
I thought my Jesus Piece was so harmless
'til I seen a picture of a shorty armless
And here's the conflict
It's in a black person's soul to rock that gold
Spend ya whole life tryna get that ice
On a polar rugby it look so nice
How could somethin' so wrong make me feel so right, right?
'fore I beat myself up like Ike
You could still throw ya Rocafella diamond tonight, 'cause"
also peep this -> http://www.playahata.com/pages/morpheus/sierraleoneice.html

ubu

The original song was meant to be called Diamonds from Sierra Leone but the record company decided against it, too controversial apparently, I appreciate what Kanye is trying to do but allowing his message to get watered down like that and releasing a remix with what he really wanted to say shows that basically Kanye is his record companies bitch and has no control over his own work and direction which is disgraceful, if you want to listen to Hip-Hop with real issues addressed listen to Immortal Technique, no record company telling him what to do.

Ay Cee

In fairness to West there's not many artists who aren't the label's bitch

FTA69

True ubu, makes a mockery of West's reputation for being some sort of prominent pioneer within the industry. Rappers should indeed be trying to reflect the message on social issues and deprivation, many already do that in a matter of fact way (ie describing their communities) but more should actually be putting an analysing spin on it in my opinion.

Kristok

The second anyone signs a contract they are the record companies property and if they wont release a track without changing it slightly then why not change it and get the message out.

FTA69

Because hip hop shouldn't be about having to regulate your material for fear of offending big business, as has been already said, Immortal Technique doesn't suscribe to such nonsense.