Okay is it just me or is gangsta rap a bit more “conscientious” these days?  I mean granted some of it is conspicuous, such as Jeezy’s various attempts on “Crazy World” but Ice Cube kills it on his new record “Raw Footage”.  If you can walk away from Ice Cube’s “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It” or “Nigga Trap” without food for thought I’m not quite sure what I can do for you.

In fact Cube’s straight forward, yet complex, delivery is refreshing in this day and age.  If you’re looking for Game to rescue California gangsta rap Cube reminds you why it was so great to begin with.  Aside from that it seems as though gangsta rappers are looking for conscientiousness to differentiate themselves.  Granted Cube has enough money where he doesn’t have to rap anymore, and this may be part of the reason he is doing what he is doing, but I have to respect a rapper like Jeezy  who still has fans looking for that “dumb sh*t, … that ride around all day sh*t” something a bit different.

The album seems to have a theme of masculinity without digressing towards means that boys try to proclaim themselves as men to it.  When it isn’t outright conscientiousness there are dramatic differences in gangsta rap in other ways, for example DMX’s use of the duo Black Violin on a record he only does a hook on, or his recording with Seal.  Granted there have been hip-hop violinists before, but these guys seem to be taking the entertainment world by fire.

Granted a lot of this has been done before.  Tupac was one of the first mainstream rappers to to really put conscientiousness out there.  Before him that seemed to be the responsibility of backpackers and so called “flower children” as we had seen with groups like De La Soul.  What gangsta rap does, is to provide a template, or a starting off point for conscientiousness.  Typically artists will introduce some basic, elementary concepts that the ‘hood can relate to, and leave the intellectual aestheticism to other deeper rappers.

The best way to describe it is to look at some of the work pop groups like Duran Duran did in the early 2000s.  They got you to think, and were trying to push their music past the small box they were in during the 80s, but weren’t asking enough of you that the lyrics would easily go over your head either.  “Ordinary World” is perhaps the best example of this.

While artists like Lil’ Wayne have a lot of wordplay I still think that they will inevitably have to grow and mature with their listeners.  What is disappointing, is a look back at what happens to artists like Jay-Z, that take the plunge but either do not go far enough, or do so in a way that appears to come off as being dishonest.  Jay had some interesting ideas on “Kingdom Come” but it seemed as if he was coming from a place only he could relate to, as opposed to one in which his fans were truly at.

Real artists want to be taken seriously; yet whether or not the push to get listeners think more and bob their heads less is truly reflective of where that artist is at or just an interesting way to market a record is a debate for the ages.  One thing is sure; once your artist sells those records and the money is coming in, he or she is sure to turn their thoughts elsewhere …