What's the deal with Hip-Hop and Rap artists using 80s beats?

The other day in the gym, I heard the familiar beat of Video Killed the Radio Star play over the sound system. Instead of the 1980s song however, the beat accompanied strange new lyrics courtesy of will.i.am and Nicki Minaj. The song is called Check it Out and throughout the entire "song" the beat to Video Killed the Radio Star plays.

Never forget what the Aerosmith/ Run DMC collaboration meant

This continues a trend I've noticed -- and one that I plan on writing about as an official entry here -- as 'original beats' are something Black people do not like. Yes, Black people are gifted at rhythmically utilizing words that, when meshed with synthesizers and bass, induce people to 'act a fool' and 'freak dance'.

Lately though, rap is going soft. No homo soft. With the collapse of the record industry, recording artists are relying on iTunes sales (because only stale old white acts from the 1960s, 70s and 80s draw big concert crowds and gate receipts) to pay the bills. Rappers are bringing back beats from the 1980s and laying down their verbiage to familiar tunes in a bid to play upon not only nostalgia, but white peoples love for the decade of the 80s.

Keeping rap and hip-hop acceptable within the white community is vital to its continued financial success. As long as white girls like to dance to rap, then white guys will tolerate listening to music from rappers and hip-hop artists that constantly denigrate them.

Such classic 1980s beats such as Alphaville's Forever Young have been utilized by a Black "musician/producer" in a bid to stay relevant. Jay-Z and Mr. Hudson used that songs beat in a song entitled Young Forever.

Perhaps it was Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddly P or what Sean Combs is calling himself these days that started this trend. In the 90s, he used the beat to The Police's Every Breath You Take for the song dedicated to the slain rapper, The Notorious BIG. Entitled I'll be Missing You, the song relied on the haunting beat that Sting made famous.

Puff Daddy would use the talents of Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin for the song Come with Me, which heavily sampled Kashmir. The merits and artistic quality of the song where questioned by actual musicians:

This collaboration was number twenty-seven on VH1's "Least Metal Moments"in a segment subtitled "It's All About the Zeppelin", because many metal fans and musicians didn't like the remake. Nick Menza formerly of Megadeth called the Puff Daddy/Jimmy Page collaboration "a blasphemy".

In 1998, Brett Scallions of the band Fuel (who had also offered a song for the soundtrack to Godzilla) said that the "Kashmir" remake put him off the entire film, saying: "It seems like anyone can take a classic rock song from the '60s, '70s or '80s and rap over the top of it and make a million bucks."

Stuff Black People Don't Like asks this question: How many rap, hip-hop or R&B songs utilize samples/beats from 80s songs? White people love the 80s and smart music producers hoping to keep their record company in business will capitalize on this knowledge.

What other songs from the 1980s have had their beats used in rap or hip-hop songs now? We're trying to compile the ultimate list of Black people incapable of coming up with original beats and relying on popular samples from 80s songs to garner a bunch of iTunes purchases.

Are all rappers going for their Run DMC/ Aerosmith moment?:

The 1986 music video for "Walk This Way" symbolically placed a rock band (assumed to be Aerosmith) and Run-D.M.C. in a musical duel in neighboring studios before Tyler literally breaks through the wall that separates them. The video then segues to the bands' joint performance on stage. The highly popular video was the first rap hybrid video ever played in heavy rotation on MTV and is regarded as a classic of the medium.

The # posts start again next week, but first we need your help to compile this list.

Raymond Martinez - the Ultimate SBPDL

For nearly six months we at SBPDL have been chronicling Stuff Black People Don't Like, and in the process left some people incapable of discerning what the true endgame of the site is and more importantly, why have embarked and such a seemingly Quixotic quest.

One of those reasons is simple: We have been searching for the ultimate manifestation of SBPDL and we have finally found an individual who encompasses the characteristics required for inclusion in the SBPDL Hall of Fame.

His name? Raymond Martinez:

"Guns, drugs, prostitutes and an endless stream of expletives filled the rap lyrics — and the life — of Raymond Martinez, the Times Square gunman who shot off two rounds from his MAC 10 before an NYPD officer took him down late Thursday morning.

When he wasn’t running CD scams on tourists in Times Square, the 25-year-old Bronx native — rap name “Ready” — was likely hanging with his buddies, drinking, smoking pot and laying down tracks, according to his friends.

“I’ll break your legs, have your brains looking like eggs,” Martinez raps in one song."

“Square Free” has a MySpace page with several images of their front man, Martinez. In a chilling harbinger of things to come, one image was digitally altered to make it look like Martinez was standing in the blood-spattered entryway of his apartment building with a machine gun lying at his feet.

Another picture shows him smoking what appears to be marijuana and a third is a cartoonish depiction of a man carrying a huge gun with a caption reading “THEM SUCKERS AINT TAKIN ME NO WHERE…”

It will be a difficult feat to duplicate the stupendous success that this Black gentlemen managed in his short-life, for he is one of the finest representations of SBPDL to ever grace the United States, as his esteemed presence is testament to the importance of this website.

How about some more background on this strange story out of New York City:

"Raymond Martinez was running a common scam on the throngs of holiday tourists in Times Square, pushing shoppers to buy his CDs, police said. But Martinez was no ordinary peddler, they said: He was carrying a loaded pistol and had a handful of business cards from gun dealers in his pockets.

The 25-year-old was shot to death by a plainclothes police sergeant Thursday after trading gunfire in the taxi area of the landmark Marriott Marquis hotel.

Sgt. Christopher Newsom operates a task force that monitors aggressive panhandling and was patrolling with an anti-crime unit when he recognized Martinez and his brother from past run-ins. He asked the two for their tax stamps, which allow peddlers to sell on the streets. But Martinez took off running, through to the hotel's passenger drop-off area.

Newsom pursued, and Martinez turned and fired with a machine pistol that held 30 rounds, getting off two shots before it jammed, police said. The officer fired four times, striking Martinez in the chest and arms and killing him, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

"We're lucky the weapon jammed," Kelly said."

Lucky his weapon jammed? Don't these people know that SBPDL includes gun safety! And worse, this whole incident could have been avoided had Mr. Martinez just cooperated with the police!

Apparently, Mr. Martinez didn't find the rap song "F*** tha Police" a merely fictitious diddy, for he prepared to engage the police in a scene worthy of the OK Corral:

"NYPD Sergeant Christopher Newsom, a 17-year veteran of the force, shot and killed Martinez in front of the Marriot Marquis after the street vendor ran from him and fired two rounds before his gun jammed, the New York Times reported.

Martinez, who rapped under the alias "Ready," held the gun sideways and parallel to the ground, a style popular in rap videos, and that caused it to "stovepipe," or jam, according to the New York Post.

There were 27 rounds left in the gun."

Interestingly, Mr. Martinez was a devout fan of Myspace (page here), and found Facebook less desirable.

Better than that though, is Mr. Martinez disgust at rap music going soft, for he was an aspiring spinner of words into rhythmically enhanced verbiage:

"An up-and-coming rapper by the name of Ready had a brush with fame before his life was taken last Thursday in NYC's Times Square. In 2008, Ready (born Raymond Martinez) squared off with Grammy Award-winning rapper/producer Kanye West during an episode of MTV’s “Hood Fab.”

Ready pulled out a last-minute victory during his “Hood Fab” challenge with Ye and received a package of tube socks and a Footlocker gift certificate."

Mr. Martinez (or Mr. Ready) found the wonderfully gifted Kanye West, to be a chump in the annals of real-life gangsta rap star, for he lived a full life and died a true to his roots (a video of Kanye and Mr. Ready can be found here).

Will this incident become yet another Sean Bell ordeal? Or will the melancholy ending of Mr. Ready's life become yet another wasted soul in the endless parade of Stuff Black People Don't Like?

Only time will tell... and only SBPDL will report.

Rest In Peace, Mr. Ready. You lived a life true to SBPDL principles and for that, you will never be forgotten.

#27. Small Butts

Kanye West is a favorite topic at SBPDL. Our fish stick loving, “no homo” espousing, George W. Bush bashing, Absolute Vodka swilling, Taylor Swift award-crashing friend is also a major lover of women who are callipygous.

Rumors of Kanye West’s love interests include Kym Kardasian, Beyonce and his current squeeze Amber Rose (a female who would pass the paper bag test).

Wait, you might be asking. Back it up. What does callipygous mean?:

“pertaining to or having finely developed buttocks; "the quest for the callipygian ideal."

Big butts. A large backside. Junk in your trunk. Black people love big butts, but you’ll be hard pressed to ever hear or read the phrase callipygous in Black people’s songs about butts. Though, Black people do love big butts, as we consult Sir Mix-a-Lot and his song Baby Got Back:

I like big butts and I can not lie
You other brothers can't deny
That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist
And a round thing in your face
You get sprung, wanna pull out your tough
'Cause you notice that butt was stuffed
Deep in the jeans she's wearing
I'm hooked and I can't stop staring
Oh baby, I wanna get with you
And take your picture
My homeboys tried to warn me
But that butt you got makes me so horny
Ooh, Rump-o'-smooth-skin
You say you wanna get in my Benz?
Well, use me, use me
'Cause you ain't that average groupie
I've seen them dancin'
To hell with romancin'
She's sweat, wet,
Got it goin' like a turbo 'Vette
I'm tired of magazines
Sayin' flat butts are the thing
Take the average black man and ask him that
She gotta pack much back
So, fellas! (Yeah!) Fellas! (Yeah!)
Has your girlfriend got the butt? (Hell yeah!)
Tell 'em to shake it! (Shake it!) Shake it! (Shake it!)
Shake that healthy butt!
Baby got back!

This song is beloved by Black people as well as white people, and yet it hints at a general truth that most people find unnerving. Black people have and Black men love big butts. Some Black people have large butts because they fail to pass on seconds, but others have them because that evil Mendel might have been correct in his theories:

(Gregor Mendel) He came to three important conclusions from these experimental results,

• that the inheritance of each trait is determined by "units" or "factors" that are passed on to descendents unchanged
• that an individual inherits one such unit from each parent for each trait
• that a trait may not show up in an individual but can still be passed on to the next generation.

A former NFL commentator – no less a scientific mind then Mendel – Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder, spent years watching Black people compete in professional football and formed this interesting hypothesis:

"On Jan. 15, 1988, Rather himself aired video shot that afternoon at Duke Zeibert's restaurant in Washington, D.C., featuring Snyder explaining why he thought African-Americans excelled in sports.

"The black is the better athlete," The Greek said. "And he practices to be the better athlete, and he's bred to be the better athlete because this goes way back to the slave period. The slave owner would breed this big black with this big black woman so he could have a big black kid. That's where it all started."

In Africa, Black people of some of the indigenous tribes have gluts that would make Beyonce or other women that Sir-Mix-a-Lot canonized in his early 1990s song quite jealous of and would drive your average Black man into a fit of adolescent joy, thanks to Steatopygia:

"...is a high degree of fat accumulation in and around the buttocks. The deposit of fat is not confined to the gluteal regions, but extends to the outside and front of the thighs, forming a thick layer reaching sometimes to the knee.

This development constitutes a genetic characteristic of the Khoisan. It is especially prevalent in the women of this tribe, but also occurs to a lesser degree in the males. In most ethnic groups of Homo sapiens, females tend to exhibit a greater propensity to adipose tissue accumulation in the buttock region as compared with males. It has also been observed among the Pygmies of Central Africa and the Onge-tribe of the Andaman Islands. Among the Khoisan, it is regarded as a sign of beauty: it begins in infancy and is fully developed by the time of the first pregnancy. It is often accompanied by the formation known as elongated labia (labia minora that may extend as much as 4 inches outside the vulva). This was historically known as the "hottentot apron".

Steatopygia would seem to have been a characteristic of a population which once extended from the Gulf of Aden to the Cape of Good Hope, of which stock Khoisan and Pygmies are remnants. While the Khoisan afford the most noticeable examples of its development, it occurs in other parts of Africa, and occurs even more frequently among male Basters than among Khoikhoi women. It is also observed among females of Andamanese Negritos."

Some Black women in Africa desire big butts so much that they augment them with injections:

“Bobaraba! It means “big bottom,” and it's a hit song and butt-shaking dance phenom sweeping the Ivory Coast, the BBC reports. In fact, some women in the west African nation are so caught up in bobaraba-mania that a black market of “bottom enhancers” has emerged, targeting those who want more junk in the trunk."

The efficacy of the treatments, sold as injections or balms with no ingredients listed, is highly questionable, and some local medical officials are concerned about possible dangers.”

Rap videos, though they have gone soft, now are a mere parade of thick-souled sistas gyrating in swimsuits, with young Black men dancing around them doing their best to dispel rumors of “no homo” and reinforcing the notion of liking big butts.

So, if Black people find big butts desirable, on both the continent of Africa where they spent hundreds of thousands of years evolving and in the United States, where they have spent the last 400 years, this must prove Mendel correct.

Stuff Black People Don’t Like, by the powers of inherited traits and genetics invested in Black people, includes small butts for Black people are predisposed for loving big butts. Sir-Mix-a-Lot did the world a favor when he sang about the advantages of large butts in the eyes of Black people, as he provided us all with a glimpse into the mind of the Black man.

#149. The Decline of Gangsta Rap

Black people love music. They have excelled at numerous forms of music, from jazz to disco, pop and finally to rap music. It is one of the major contributions that they have made to the world, and through this medium they have assimilated themselves to millions of white people who normally would have nothing to do with them.

Rap music in particular, owes its main-stream success to the integration of the gangsta-rap genre with the listening habits of suburban white people, particularly white males whose only exposure to Black people came from listening to gangsta – rap in the early late 1980s and early 1990s.

Songs like Snoop Dog’s “187” were monumentally influential to a generation of rappers and had an immediate impact on tapes that white people placed into their Walkmans.

Ice-T – an occasional actor – performed the popular song “Cop Killer” in 1992, which is, about killing cops:

“The song provoked much controversy and negative reactions from politicians such as George H.W. Bush, Dan Quayle and Tipper Gore, although some defended the song on the basis of the band's First Amendment rights.”

Another gangsta rapper, similarly named after solidified water, Ice Cube, was part of Niggaz With Attitude (NWA), a hardcore gangsta rap outfit from Compton, that took the world by storm in the late 80s, forever changing the listening habits of white people with it:

“N.W.A released Straight Outta Compton in 1988. With its famous opening salvo of three songs, the group reflected the rising anger of the urban youth. "Straight Outta Compton" introduced the group; "Fuck tha Police" protested police brutality and racial profiling, and "Gangsta Gangsta" painted the worldview of the inner-city youth. While the group was later credited with pioneering the burgeoning sub genre of gangsta rap, N.W.A in fact referred to their music as "reality rap".”

But as gangsta rap slowly invaded the white suburbs, it had to move away from the hardcore, cop-killing image it had created. Thus, the Trojan horse for gangsta rap and Black people invading white people’s cassette tapes and CD players: Vanilla Ice.

Yes, he got white kids listening to rap, but it was a Faustian Pact for gangsta rappers: he was a white rapper that parents found tolerable, yet a white rapper that Black audiences found unimaginably intolerable. He was a mortal blow to gangsta rap that the genre may never recover from.

Whomp There It is, Tootsie Roll and other silly rap songs diluted the angry Black man message of Black solidarity and gangsta rap, and appealed primarily to white people and their pocket books. Later rappers like Sisqo cranked out goofy songs like “The Thong Song”, just to make a quick buck. Nothing of substance or of protest in favor of the Black community, just a goofy song that white people enjoyed, and specifically written for massive consumption by the white audience.

Black people sold their soul to Mephistopheles - the white devil, white people – in their bid to get big record deals and big bucks. Snoop Dog is now in PG-13 movies with Vince Vaughn and no longer rapping about the thug life. Instead:

“Rap artists have continued to produce more easygoing, melodic songs with R&B choruses. However, the likes of Kanye West, Snoop Dogg and Nelly have gone as far as to not only sing the hooks themselves, but to sing entire songs.

"Additionally, almost across the board, rappers from T.I. to Plies to Soulja Boy Tell'em have released songs with the female fans in mind, boasting about their ability to satisfy their women physically, emotionally and/or materialistically.

Have rappers gone soft?”

Take Soulja Boy Tell’em for example. He is a young rapper who one website dubbed a walking poster-child for Black stereotypes. He scored a hit in 2007 about performing a lewd act upon a female – which is one of the number one topics of rap music now – and older rappers had this to say about him:

“Critics and hip-hop figures such as Snoop Dogg and Method Man cite Soulja Boy as artistically typical of contemporary rap trends such as writing for the lucrative ringtone market, and the ascendence of "Southern hip hop", emphasizing catchy music that discards rap's traditional emphasis on message.”

Rap music, in the good old days, wasn’t about pumping out hits for white people to listen to in lily-white suburbs, but a genre to express Black angst at the world and their predicament in it. That was of course, in Pre-Obama America.

Now, what do Black people have to protest?

Rappers now have so much money at their disposal, that the issue that dominates the music scene is No Homo:

“But old habits die hard, and last week, West amended his position somewhat on "Run This Town," a new Jay-Z single on which the Chicago rapper is a featured guest. "It's crazy how you can go from being Joe Blow," West begins his rap, "to everybody on your dick—no homo." No homo, to those unfamiliar with the term, is a phrase added to statements in order to rid them of possible homosexual double-entendre. ("You've got beautiful balls," you tell your friend at the bocce game—"no homo.") No homo began life as East Harlem slang in the early '90s, and in the early aughts it entered the hip-hop lexicon via the Harlem rapper Cam'ron and his Diplomats crew.”

Yes, gangsta rap and rap music as whole is dead, a water-downed form of music that white people feel safe and comfortable listening too.

Stuff Black People Don’t Like includes the decline of gangsta rap, an art form that they perfected and then lost in a Faustian pact with the white devils. The allure of money and fame was too much for gangsta rappers so they sold their souls for vast fortunes. Not even resurrecting Tupac Shakur could save rap music now.

The following two videos show the evolution of rap music, from its hardcore, edgy past to where it might be headed...

#602. The Morning After 'Making It Rain'

All people throughout history have secretly desired the ability to control the weather. Farmers who saw their crop ruined due to droughts; high school football players who dreaded the 100 degree weather during two-a-days in the summer; and George W. Bush, just days before Katrina hit New Orleans, all wished the ability to manipulate the weather.

However, only Black people have mastered the idea of controlling precipitation and this amazing skill is known as "Making it Rain":

"When you're in da club with a stack (of money), and you throw the money up in the air at the strippers. The effect is that it seems to be raining money."

Black people, particularly Black athletes, are highly adroit at channeling the weather Gods and creating a monetary monsoon at their command when visiting strip clubs.

Adam "Pacman" Jones, a prime example of the modern Black athlete, was involved in one particular magical evening, when he was able to conjure up a financial flood that reminded some people at the strip club of the old saying, "Apres-je, le deluge":

"...what happened inside a Las Vegas strip club on Feb. 19, 2007, when Adam "Pacman" Jones showered scantily clad dancers with money. Just minutes after "making it rain," Jones was involved in a fight inside the club. A short time later, three people were shot outside the club.

Shortly after 2 a.m. on Feb. 19, Jones and an entourage of about seven people -- a group that included his stylist; his business manager, Chris Horvath; and Robert Reid, Jones' massive bodyguard for the evening -- arrived at the Minxx Gentlemen's Club & Lounge...

Jones told police he arrived at the club with "close to $100,000." He took $40,000 out of his Louis Vuitton bag and exchanged it for several stacks of $1 bills, which he put in a black trash bag, according to his statement. So much money was thrown onto the main stage that dancers, after their sets, started filling buckets with the loose bills covering the stage."

Adam "Pacman" Jones uncanny ability to "make it rain" was upstaged by the exploits of fellow NFL player Vince Young, who also has the God-like ability to perform feats of down-pour of dollars at a moments whim:

"The last time a member of the Tennessee Titans decided to "make it rain" while hanging out at an event with Nelly -- people got shot and lives were ruined. But Vince Young isn't one to learn from other people's mistakes...While onstage with the rapper during a performance in Houston last week, Vince rolled out a wad of cash and started showering the crowd with dollar bills. But unlike the incident with his former teammate Pacman Jones, everyone emerged unharmed this time."

"Making It Rain" is a popular rap song, that contains these wonderful lyrics that allow the world to see how Black people can conjure up the ability to perform daring feats of weather manipulation:

"Oww Scottie lets make it rain on these niggas...

I'm in this bitch with the terror got a handful of stacks Better grab an umbrella

I make it rain, (I make it rain)

I make it rain on them hoes make it rain,(I make It rain)

I make it rain on them hoes I make it rain,(I make it rain)

I make it rain on them hoes I make it rain(I make it rain)

I make it rain on them hoes"

Black people - particulary Black athletes and rappers - can "make it rain" with an authority unlike any Indian chieftan performing the most elaborate rain dance. However, the idea of "making it rain" does have horrible ramifications, as the celebratory evening can leave devastating memories in the morning after, not to mention the financial lunacy of unloading massive amounts of cash with a low return on investment proposition.

The morning after "Making it Rain" can be a traumatic experience for Black people, as Pacman Jones found out:

"Police seized $81,020 in cash belonging to Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones, money they said sparked a melee and a triple shooting at a strip club over the weekend, court documents show

Jones was showering more than 40 strippers onstage at Minxx Gentlemen's Club & Lounge early Monday with the cash "intended as a visual effect," according to a search warrant. But a scuffle broke out when the Houston promoter who hired the strippers told them to pick the money up."

Jones was suspended from the NFL for one year after this incident, and Vince Young has never recovered from his bout with "Making it Rain", nearly committing suicide and losing his starting job to a white quarterback.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes the morning after "Making it Rain" for the ability to create spontaneous weather patterns yielding wads of cash for strippers, strips away the judgement skills of the person performing the feat. Yet, this is one of the few instances when Black people do leave a solid tip, however the ramifications the morning after are to great to warrant "Making it Rain".

FYI - ESPN has removed the clip below that exposes the story of Pacman Jones: CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT.