Comments on: This Week in Grindin’: Dizzee Rascal, Bun B, and IL plate #115 0430

By: Murderbot

Murderbot — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:16:01 +0000

for real, right? PHONED IN!

I mean, when I heard about this tune I was really excited, and truth be told I’d be happy to overlook the awful message if it was BRILLIANT (I play ghettotech, after all), but it just seems like a lazy track to me…

By: simpletonian

simpletonian — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:29:52 +0000

Aside from the question of ethicality here and the incongruity of transplanting Dizzee into the Houston ghetto, this is one of the most phoned-in performances I’ve heard from either of these guys. Dull beat, dull rhymes. “Liar, liar. Pants on fire.” That’s some scathing shit.

Gotta love the “gangsta-vision” sunglasses Diz picks up towards the end which he uses to distinguish the real gun-toting thugs from the posers.

By: KiDDiD

KiDDiD — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:37:58 +0000

Yes, I think it’s relevant to address dark topics like these in music, especially if it’s an unavoidable part of ones every day experience. But in terms of subject matter, this is the same shit we are force fed on a daily basis with MTV and pop radio. And why is that? Because the fuckers who run the big game, the CEO’s, politicians and other hi-level “blokes” in positions of power, eat this shit up. Not only does it add fuel to the fires of racism and white superiority but simultaneously perpetuates a cycle of servitude. Is a guy selling crack and killing people in his own neighborhood really gonna get ahead through these means? Of course not. They are, however, going to influence a new generation of children to live EXACTLY THE SAME as they did. A child that escapes repeating the mistakes of his/her parents is unfortunately a proven rarity in these environments. God, I’ve spent the last 15 years of my life trying not to repeat the mistakes of mine…can’t say I’ve been completely successful.

As far as I’m concerned NWA and Dr.Dre already went there, proved the existence of this life to the mainstream, harped on the negative and exposed what it takes to get by. Can we organize ourselves and move on so that the next life-cycle has it a little better than we did?

By: Duppy Foodstamps

Duppy Foodstamps — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:06:29 +0000

Not that it’s anything to be proud of, but the US is way more murderous than the UK:

The (murder) record: New York’s 2,245 in 1990

New York’s murder rate per person: 6.9 per 100,000, making it it the safest large city in America

London’s murder rate per person: 2.4 per 100,000

From http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article407900.ece

Also not to be proud of: Dizzee’s recent efforts, including this song. Seriously, what happened to him? Spending too much time with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I guess.

By: Murderbot

Murderbot — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:42:02 +0000

1) I’m not going to get in a ghetto pissing contest with you, “umuggycunt”, but suffice it to say that I grew up in a pretty grim part of the United States, with close relatives who lived the life that these songs survive, and my mother really struggled (as I continue to struggle) to get an education and get out of that economic position. I now have a Master’s Degree in American Studies, and while I don’t consider myself to be some lofty intellectual or academic, I do know my facts when it comes to discussions of ghetto life in the states vs. abroad–both from experience and from research.
2) Your crime stats are wrong. Show me some DOCUMENTATION and we’ll talk statistics.
3) Your tone is uncalled for.
4) and this is to you too, DJ C–there are plenty of us who come from horrible neighborhoods and piss-poor families and it DOESN’T make us into crack dealers or murderers. We aren’t “insulated blokes”, but just like you we can’t understand how these people do these things. We do our best to fix our lot in legitimate, ethical ways, and we don’t think that any degree of poverty or oppression is an excuse to sell crack and kill people and then brag about it in a song. It’s disgusting.

By: DJ C

DJ C — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:35:24 +0000

First of all:

Nice tune! Great combo of grime and southern rap. Was bound to happen at some point, and seems to be a bit of a theme on this blog over the past week. See:

Squincy Jones; Nintendub

and Whoa-B’s Welcome To Grimerock mix on this post ->

Second:

I agree with Umuggycunt. The video shows what seems to me (an outsider) to be a more true picture of ghetto life than the blinged-out, bently-having, fur coat-wearing “Ganstaz” in your average rap video. That gives me the impression that they’re dissing what gangster-rap has become. Or at least an aspect of the image.

I don’t personally know Diz or Bun so I don’t know what their backgrounds truly are, but let’s assume that they both grew up in the ghettos of their respective cities. Then the struggle was real for them and they probably had to do things to survive that insulated blokes like me don’t understand, and they sure-as-hell should be allowed to talk about that.

Yet there’s still something troubling about glorifying gangster life which, in the end, I think this video does. It perpetuates the cycle that these guys seem to be railing against. Here they are, making their money by selling their music to those pseudo-thugs they’re dissing. I guess it is kind of like selling drugs innit?

By: KiDDiD

KiDDiD — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:22:30 +0000

Gotta agree with you on many of these points. It’d be nice if urban music moved on from cashing in on violence, masogyny, and that whole “I’m just expressing what I see” mentality. Isn’t an artist/musician/creator more than just a reflection of his/her environment? Much of this could be addressed in other ways and the musician expressing it could still come across as being a bad-ass (i.e., exactly how most of these dudes want to be perceived), but I suppose that would take more time and foresight, self-reflection…and might not reign in as much cash money.

By: umuggycunt

umuggycunt — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:46:28 +0000

dude u got this seriously twisted
1) painfully forced? this song was a natural collabo bun n diz are good friends and have been for years now no money exchanged hands to make this song they traded verses and diz appears on the ugk song 2 types of bitches (cue misogynistic rant from u)this song is the best most natural uk us collabo ever…
2) yes what a ill informed bigot you are a thug is a thug regardless of geography the games the same the murder rate in london is higher than it ever was at its peak in the bad old days in new york right now and as far as im aware the general concensus amongst gangsters is that stabbing a man to death is a much more personal and difficult thing to do than shooting someone though plenty of people get shot in the uk too we were murdering and extorting in the uk when the native americans were still running things in the states and most of your famous gangsters are from euro stock anyways…
btw the only place dizzee talks about stabbing someone is right before he talks about shooting someone too “you aint robbed nobody shanked nobody you aint bust no gun you aint seen no ghetto action whod’you think youre fooling son?” so what are you talking about?
3) youve totally and utterly missed the point of the song which is glaringly obvious so i must assume you are either one of those crass hipster yanks who just write shit for the sake of seeing your words in print or youre one of those pseudo cerebal ONES WHO think your intellectual and dont realise that youve been fucked over just as much as all the other yanks you sneer at and feel superior to
THE SONG IS ATTACKING THE WHOLE CULTURE OF GANGSTER RAP AND ITS APPROPRIATION BY IDIOT MIDLECLASS SUBURBAN RAPPERS WHO VIEW IT AS A CAREER OPTION AND WHO GLORIFY IT HAVING NEVER LIVED IT YOU FUCKING JERKWAD