http://www.newtownradio.com/show-archive/impose-magazine-radio-8213/
Here's the archive for the show.
billy was running late and shows up about an hour in
I remember liking Billy Wood's last project, will have to check out this new one.
Great ep IMO, I'll focus on the hip hop stuff here.
On Billy Woods: Great interview. I tend to love music interviews where an energetic artist just shoots the shit, plus discusses his artistic process. But perhaps the best thing about it is that he pretty much explained my view on the great hip hop label conspiracy/"industry plant" movement. The business of rap has ALWAYS been about selling albums and making money. People who sit around reminiscing about the "innocence" and anti-capitalism of golden era rap must have been asleep when Run DMC were selling Adidas and Dapper Dan was hooking KRS-One up with swag. If something is popular, labels will flood the market with it, and rappers have always been materialistic to varying degrees. As he said, labels didn't give Public Enemy a deal to spread black power, they got signed because black nationalism was marketable at the time; even LL had a black panther (wearing a gold chain) on his album cover at the time, come on.
Lupe Fiasco didn't get signed by Atlantic because they wanted to promote non-violence and all that shit, they signed him because Kanye West had just released a couple highly successful mainstream "conscious" albums, proving there was a market for that stuff (if the sheen was appropriately shiny). Likewise 50 Cent didn't get signed because Jimmy Iovinne wants the black man to be dumbed down with violent shit, he got signed because he could sell records.
Is "lyricism" coming back? I don't think so, but I could be wrong. Kendrick's verse was largely lauded for calling out other rappers, not for its lyrical skill (or lack thereof depending on your views). Most of the reactions and tweets I've seen revolve around that, and the king of NY line. You don't see anyone marveling at Kendrick's impressive use of an extended metaphor towards the end of the verse, and how that style hasn't really been done much since 2000s Eminem. Sure if you read GAF's hip hop forum you read that...but we're a bunch of rap nerds. Most of the kids who thought Kendrick's verse was "hot" are the same people who think Swimming Pools is a drinking anthem. I doubt they're going to start downloading Blackalicious albums or something.
