BART Rappers
If you've lived in the Bay Area long enough, you know who they are. You can hear their music leaking out of low-quality earphones set on full blast, or sometimes out of old-school boomboxes two seats away from you, also full blast. It's scratchy, the beats are weak, fake, and synthesized, and the lyrics are, to put it as politely as possible, crap. But, they took the time to make it, and apparently they REALLY want you to hear about what they did at the club the other day, how high he gets and how frequently, and what some girl's ass looked like in her jeans.
Six or seven times I have seen these people walk through the cars of BART trains, in any given direction, stop at me, and ask, "D'you be interested in listenin' to ma tracks?"
I like rap. So, at first, I was naive, and accepted their offers, only to be rewarded with a displeasing onslaught of aesthetically-challenged music and pathetic lyrics. I'm wiser now. When I'm asked to plug my headphones into their CD players and try it out, I respond with a question of my own: "What do you rap about?"
I remember the first reply almost verbatim.
"Ah, just doin' me, y'know? What I do wit my life! Y'know. Smokin'. Drinkin'. Havin' fun. Doin' me."
To those responses I say something to the effect of, "No thanks, I'm lookin for more of Kanye West, Lupe kinda content, y'know?"
Sometimes they move on, but once I got a response like, "I'm the NEW Kanye, babe. The Kanye of the BAY!"
Today on my way from school, I was sitting down on the BART, talking to a friend, when a man sat down in front of us. We didn't pay him any mind until the conversation lagged a bit and we heard the music coming from his earphones. The beat was synthesized and seemingly composed of "sample" sounds -- you know, the ones that come free with whatever program it was.
My friend being a Sound student and I an Animation student, I asked him if he felt the same way I did about those types of beats, and felt a little better knowing I wasn't alone.
Then I saw the guy's hands. If you've ridden the BART a few times, you know that BART tickets get demagnetized ridiculously easy. When you enter, if you put your ticket next to your cell phone, your MP3 player, PDA, or anything electronic, it'll die and you'll have to spend precious minutes getting your ticket stamped and revalidated upon exiting the station. This guy was holding his Sansa MP3 player, his cell phone, and his ticket in one hand, and was raising the volume on his MP3 with the other, nodding his head to the music.
I looked at his Sansa. He had changed tracks a few times, allowing about 30 seconds to listen per song. (Yeah, I was really paying attention at this point.) No songs had an album name or cover, so my friend and I both concluded that this man was, in fact, listening and enjoying his OWN MUSIC.
"Damn, I am the SHIT. I'm so great I'm the only one I'll ever listen to, ever again! My influences? ME, MYSELF, and I, bitch!"
That's what you're saying when you listen to your own music on full blast in public. So by this time, we both figured he was a local rapper trying to promote his own music, but we weren't completely sure until he got up, exposing the back of his bright red extra long tee that read: "GOT THE STREETS ON LOCK: LOOK OUT FOR THE NEW HIT ALBUM, COMING SOON!"
Ya know, I think he'd have a much better chance if he invested in some better beats, instead.
Six or seven times I have seen these people walk through the cars of BART trains, in any given direction, stop at me, and ask, "D'you be interested in listenin' to ma tracks?"
I like rap. So, at first, I was naive, and accepted their offers, only to be rewarded with a displeasing onslaught of aesthetically-challenged music and pathetic lyrics. I'm wiser now. When I'm asked to plug my headphones into their CD players and try it out, I respond with a question of my own: "What do you rap about?"
I remember the first reply almost verbatim.
"Ah, just doin' me, y'know? What I do wit my life! Y'know. Smokin'. Drinkin'. Havin' fun. Doin' me."
To those responses I say something to the effect of, "No thanks, I'm lookin for more of Kanye West, Lupe kinda content, y'know?"
Sometimes they move on, but once I got a response like, "I'm the NEW Kanye, babe. The Kanye of the BAY!"
Today on my way from school, I was sitting down on the BART, talking to a friend, when a man sat down in front of us. We didn't pay him any mind until the conversation lagged a bit and we heard the music coming from his earphones. The beat was synthesized and seemingly composed of "sample" sounds -- you know, the ones that come free with whatever program it was.
My friend being a Sound student and I an Animation student, I asked him if he felt the same way I did about those types of beats, and felt a little better knowing I wasn't alone.
Then I saw the guy's hands. If you've ridden the BART a few times, you know that BART tickets get demagnetized ridiculously easy. When you enter, if you put your ticket next to your cell phone, your MP3 player, PDA, or anything electronic, it'll die and you'll have to spend precious minutes getting your ticket stamped and revalidated upon exiting the station. This guy was holding his Sansa MP3 player, his cell phone, and his ticket in one hand, and was raising the volume on his MP3 with the other, nodding his head to the music.
I looked at his Sansa. He had changed tracks a few times, allowing about 30 seconds to listen per song. (Yeah, I was really paying attention at this point.) No songs had an album name or cover, so my friend and I both concluded that this man was, in fact, listening and enjoying his OWN MUSIC.
"Damn, I am the SHIT. I'm so great I'm the only one I'll ever listen to, ever again! My influences? ME, MYSELF, and I, bitch!"
That's what you're saying when you listen to your own music on full blast in public. So by this time, we both figured he was a local rapper trying to promote his own music, but we weren't completely sure until he got up, exposing the back of his bright red extra long tee that read: "GOT THE STREETS ON LOCK: LOOK OUT FOR THE NEW HIT ALBUM, COMING SOON!"
Ya know, I think he'd have a much better chance if he invested in some better beats, instead.