Rappers: the new renaissance men?

[Al B. Sure!]

This is like saying professional athletes are smart, because they make so much money. Sorry, but Alex Rodriguez has a $200 million contract because he has athletic ability in the sport of baseball, not because he can beat me in Trivial Pursuit.

there's on huge difference between Rodriguez and Sean Combs and Master P... the latter two STARTED their record companies from scratch, have complete control over their earnings (they aren't getting a salary from a damn baseball team) and have expanded them to other areas including movies and clothes.

[Al B. Sure!]

it should be noted that Sean Combs didn't even start out as puff daddy the rapper. he initially started his own record company and was more in the business aspect of running a company but then started to produce music and after the death of biggie, only then did he start rapping.

[David Floyd]

there's on huge difference between Rodriguez and Sean Combs and Master P... the latter two STARTED their record companies from scratch, have complete control over their earnings (they aren't getting a salary from a damn baseball team) and have expanded them to other areas including movies and clothes.

Yet this is all predicated on their ability to make money rapping. No prior money = no success. Now, granted, this is largely true everywhere, but the difference is, these people are doing "work" that consists of cursing a lot and talking about busting a cap in yo mama's ass.

And congratulations, they've expanded their earnings. Oh, excuse me, I mean they've hired other people to expand their earnings for them. You think P Diddy could direct a highly profitable movie by himself? Yeah, I doubt it.

The point is, while I'm sure these people aren't all stupid, I wouldn't call them shining examples of intelligence, either. These people do lot's of stupid stuff, get sent up on sexual assault charges or weapons charges, and get shot by other supposedly intelligent people (which brings up a good question - who's stupider? Master P for talking **** about DMX or DMX for shooting him for it? and yes, I know those two people didn't actually do that ).

And yes, this kind of thing happens to other people, too. Of course, this is to be expected, as most people in general are stupid, too.

[David Floyd]

And maybe I'm being a little harsh. But frankly, the way these people act, the way they speak, the kind of **** they put out in "music", etc., does not make me think these people are very intelligent at all.

[Al B. Sure!]

Yet this is all predicated on their ability to make money rapping. No prior money = no success

didnt i just say...

it should be noted that Sean Combs didn't even start out as puff daddy the rapper. he initially started his own record company and was more in the business aspect of running a company but then started to produce music and after the death of biggie, only then did he start rapping.

Master P did start out as a rapper but i believe he also started out from scratch distributing and marketing his own material.

And maybe I'm being a little harsh. But frankly, the way these people act, the way they speak, the kind of **** they put out in "music", etc., does not make me think these people are very intelligent at all.

judging a book by its cover...

[Al B. Sure!]

and by the way...

talking about busting a cap in yo mama's ass.

as much rap as i have listened to, i can only think of one time when this was mentioned... Eazy E said something to this effect on an old ass NWA song

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Albert Speer
thats a damn shame... how many rock singers have directed movies? how many are CEO's of record companies?

You're kidding me, right?

[The Mad Monk]

The only big one I can think of right now is Apple Records, which was set up by the Beatles, but the entertainment industry is literally carpeted by thousands of little production companies that were set up and given to actors and musicians as part of their compensation packages.

[Al B. Sure!]

Mad Monk:

thousands of little production companies? come on... can any of them except Apple Records compete in net worth with Bad Boy Entertainment/Sean John clothing, No Limit Entertainment/Sports/Films, Def Jam Entertainment Group, Rap-A-Lot Inc., etc.

and again... No Limit and Badboy were founded from scratch, not as any compensation package...

[mrmitchell]

Albert, there is one major exception to your comparison between Mozart-era and today. Classical music composers usually worked their ****ing ass off because they loved music.

Now here's pop quiz time:

If you mugged a rapper and forced him to answer to you truthfully whether he rapped because he loved the music or all the money he was getting, which would he say?

Albert Speer's Signature"I come from the ghetto. I don't worry about image. I worry about making money." -Master P

And it should be noted that rappers don't have to work hard at all, considering that right now there are probably a million Americans exactly repeating their lyrics and tunes.

(Albert, you might think you're winning, but the troll is so poorly made that countertrolls can only come from those desperate to just troll out anything. Perhaps if you carefully disguised the troll in a thread about the California recall or the United Nations or a budget deficit, you would be countertrolled harder.)

[David Floyd]

Yeah, agree with MM. All I can really do is say "Look at these people - by and large, they're ****ing idiots."

Comparing these rappers to real CEOs, indeed

[Jac de Molay]

take Puff Daddy for example... aside from being a rapper, he is a successful businessman and president of Bad Boy Entertainment, a music producer, a music video director/producer, and a skilled dancer. he is only in his early 30's.

When you're peddling crap, you probably need to work twice as hard.

[monolith94]

True, many rappers are multi-talented and versatile, but not all of them are, and you certainly don't have to be a rapper to be a 'renaissance man'. You seem to think the term is defined by your profession, while I've always seen it used to describe someone who's well educated in many areas of culture and science, as well as having much and diverse real world experience.

[Al B. Sure!]

Yeah, agree with MM. All I can really do is say "Look at these people - by and large, they're ****ing idiots."

Comparing these rappers to real CEOs, indeed

yeah Puff Daddy is looking a lot better than those Enron people...

[monolith94]

The first against the wall will be the ceos, not the rappers. And I can't say that I mind.