headphones = antisocial

dkmon47

good hip hop is like a good conversation: the words captivate, invite reflection, inspire response.
bad hip hop is like talking to a dude who quotes way too many Will Ferrell movies: the words irritate, invite sarcasm, inspire guesses of source until you stop listening and just focus on the noise around his voice.

Today, I listened to a lot of Jurassic 5, which restored a bit of the passion for music I didn't realize had been dwindling with every industrial corn mixtape fodder I hear attempting to compensate for its formulaic filler by beefing up the product with all the essential/usual veterans and criminals and banking on their insanely idiotic/catchy campaign slogans to push releases. I'm not saying it's wrong to have a signature style--it definitely helps distinguish one rapper from the millions of others reaching for the stars out in myspace. But when the only style concerned is that of the rapper's obscenely decadent life, the music just becomes an echo of his celebrity, fading dumb and dumber with each baaallliinnn'!

It's the same thing with food (and any product, for that matter): it's easy to forget that you eat at McD's because it's fast, filling, and has the brand power to convince you that it's soo bad that it's good. But when you decide to go to that local restaurant where all the ingredients are farm fresh and each burger is carefully prepared with consideration to detail (good style points!), you'll remember what good food really tastes like and wonder how you could have put that other garbage in your body for so long and maybe that's why you've been getting fat, breaking out and your girlfriend's breaking up with you.

That being said, of course I'll still listen to all those fast food joints...sometimes there's nothing else that will satisfy quite like a Fat Joe slammy with all the Lil condiments. But hopefully I'll be a bit more conscious about my daily music diet until the industry upgrades and restriction won't be as necessary.