On Shyne and What's "Real"

Though the albums only been out for two days now, I'm going to go ahead and declare Godfather Buried Alive the most overrated album of the year. But the tons of accolades being thrown upon it have very little to do with the music,and everything to do with Shyne's image. "Shyne's so real!" and "Shyne's realer than 50" are the central praises you're most likely to hear when you ask someone's opinion of the album. I was going to do a real elaborate post on the growing emphasis on image over skills,but since its Thursday and I've got Business to tend to,I'll sum up my feelings on the issue with these observations:

1. The deluge of bubblegum rap and cookie-cutter "gangsta" caricatures in hip hop has left millions of rap listeners starving for any semblance of musical authenticity.

2. To satisfy that hunger, industry execs would rather give fans easy-to-market albums filled with edgy "ghetto realism" instead of music with lyrical substance. Whereas "real" used to be about artistic integrity,now its about how willing an artist is to act out whatever mayhem he depicts on record. Or his crack dealing past,or how many times he's been shot/who he's shot, ect,ect. Take your pick.

3. How long will this obsession with "what rapper's the realest" last? Hard to tell, because as long as MC's have a price tag on their souls, A&R's will be all too willing to cheapen the struggles of Black youth-all for the sake of marketing mediocre music disguised as "real" hip hop.

Enough of me and my soapbox,though; I've got to get on my grind.