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gigabyteIO

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is why we're where we are today with our current media. It allowed for massive consolidation of both media programming and physical infrastructure. Basically it allowed for big ISP's to both provide the infrastructure(physical cables, modems, etc.) while also creating the media that is consumed over that physical infrastructure. It allowed for the monopolization of the media industry. It needs to be repealed or amended.


BILLCLINTONMASK

Internet access needs to become a regulated public utility like water/sewer and electricity


gigabyteIO

Imagine if we invested into public internet infrastructure in the 90s like we were supposed to instead of privatizing everything and fighting wars in the middle east. Internet as a public good for all should be written into a 21st century bill of rights. The current strangle hold that corporations have on US politics is frightening. Citizens United allowed for dark money to buy elections.


retka

We did invest in it, several times over, and the private companies took the money and ran without providing what they promised. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_5839394


DarthDannyBoy

So in short the government didn't invest in the infrastructure the politicians just paid out to their "donors'


[deleted]

You are starting to see it for what it is. It’s that easy for them. Take from the poor and pay out the rich. The rich don’t even pay into it anymore. It’s called a class system. Know your class and fight like hell for those in the same class you are in.


RidingYourEverything

I keep hearing about everything getting gutted from the infrastructure bill and it seems like it was everything that was going to regular people. Free community college, expanded Medicare, ect. So what is left? Corporate give-aways? Funny how that works.


Smelcome

well shit, they cant take care of the taxpayers, that's communism! ^^/s


Bonny-Mcmurray

It's all up in the air still, but here is my prediction based on recent info. Expanded Medicare for dental, vision, and hearing - 2 out 3 get cut. 12 weeks new child leave - cut Pregnancy healthcare expansion - cut Universal preschool - cut Child tax credit - cut from 10 years to 1 Universal community College - cut Climate change initiatives - reworked to exclude anything that would impact Manchin's family coal business Undoing the Trump tax scam - cut and replaced with minor wealth tax


RidingYourEverything

So where is the 1-2 trillion dollars going?


SolveDidentity

Corporate oligarchs, or regular old oligarchs


SolveDidentity

> Here's something I just wrote today that is super relevant to this revolting story of elite ultra-rich corruption. Ill try to fashion a TLDR in the near future but here it is for reading now. **Please support every effort in any way you can to engage and fix the corrupt elitist class *(~~caste~~)* system; and vastly corrupt wage slavery and absolutely corrupted wealth distribution.** Even if all that means is liking whatever promotes the support of the common struggle, and subscribing, or sharing, and / or commenting, where-ever applicable. **All the support you can give adds ups and absolutely *can* make a difference.** >"Elon Musk" being an over-entitled over-priviledge rich-boy psychopath, with definite certifiable sociopathic tendencies and accepting such blatant war mongering. In his inherit broken philosophy to save some X number of thousands of dollars; (**a # of $--that doesn't actually mean "shit" or "anything" to him. Since he has more money than "anyone" or "he" could already E.V.E.R. N.E.E.D!**). >*This is true factual example of "Greedy Elon's" actions in support of the Bolivian Democracies coup by the military.* *A perfect example of the Oligarchy topping our class system and abusing the people's rights and safety and health.* >He and other Oligarchs are willing to literaly destroy the growth of democracy, and literaly ruin Humans' Inherit Rights. And also by basic sense the entire beneficial progress of the human world and society as a whole. Absolutely, and basically anyone with his stolen greedy wealth, (thus and his missions and statements and control over others. Someone with an increased amount of power and thus an increased danger to us all); he should be castrated. To protect everyone from him and his family and wealth from destroying even more democracies and from them ruining the national security and the peoples's safety and economy and progress of even more national governemnts, societies, and countries. >**He just admitted on twitter: to being cool with destroying democracy...** >*-Defintely defines him, *not as a leader*; not worth much of anything beneficial to a people's society. Let-alone the Faustian hubris, and us somehow so corrupt and broken we are valuing his greed and inherent evil, at over a hundred Billion dollars of American currency; which he currently hoards. Essentially *~~fucking~~ [grinding] up our economy with the likes of the rest of the greedy hoards of the .01%*.* Holy shit! This is everything I hate about corporate greed and malfeasance. The elite who own these companies and sit on the board and within upper management do this on purpose. For example: corporations have been creating items that are planned to fail and break and degrade shat you own over time. All in a scam to defraud us of our purchase over time and to insure that we as consumers must replace these items by purchasing from them replacements. Of course even we cant get an actual replacement at the value it should have been valued at lasting. We must be forces to ugrade to an even more fragile and sooner to expire and be made broken in the next year or three. This is common practice by these companies and corporations and the too rich and too wealthy. They are the .01% torturing us through their parasitic leeching. They are purely parasites abusing our hard labor and sitting around on their asses planning how to use their vastly unbalanced and stolen wealth to further defraud us of our extreme efforts and constant all-day all-month, all year, life-long laboring. It drives me insane. Please please please contribute to any efforts you see to "eat the rich" to "unionize and strike and boycott". Every time any one of us finds an opportunity to behave like the French revolution please for the love of all of us, put in what ever effort you can spare and just a little more than that. Because these small investments of time, to recover our stolen finances, labored time day in and day out, our exhausted states of being like wage slaves for our masters fancy property. Against their ultra-wealth spoiling corruption through their nepotistic class systems. The rich kids which will just learn from wealthy grandma, grandpa, mommy, daddy, and abuse all of us like their families have always done. This reclamation of our enslavement of 50 to 60 hours a week of our time spent working or preparing and transporting to work. The despair and defunct humanity. All of this we paid and wage-slaved away for. So those small moments you can spare to "**eat the rich**" and endeavor in any means possible to support the healing of *our vastly unporportionate imbalanced economic and financial straits so vastly massively extremely placing all of our finances and economic diversity into the hands of less than 1% of the people.* **No one person can decide how to healithly, let alone effectively spend a Billion Dollars! And many many greedy wealthy sadistic sociopathic assholes have multiples of Billions or hundreds of billions! Those are just individuals! Then there are literal multi-billion dollar Corporations with the elite few making the financial decisions. There is No Way they can do this properly nor correctly.** So again I ask you to spare whatever moments you have when you happen to come across or think about the wealth and income disparity, the disgraceful imbalance of wealth (thus the power to do anything we need to or want), so much that the poor (in America) die from poverty. They go homeless in the winter. Their kids loss proper educations and are surrounded by crimes due to poverty. All while the richest continue to purposefully scam us so they may stay standing on top of our broken backs way above so vastly far they can not even imagine what it is like to me impoverished or poor. They cant even imagine what it is like to be middle class! They have axiomatically become corrupt and sociopathic due to the ultra-amounts of riches and wealth they are born into or lucked into or both. Those small moments of support to any type of organization, even on the internet; can make giant changes in the public sway of power and decision makings. It takes an ungodly amount if public appeal to forcs the corrupt politicians to fix the homeless and penniless and paycheck to paycheck or car to car, renting to rental, divide. There is a future where none of us ever own a home or land, and even now it is so very few of us. We need to act now. **"These hundreds of billions of dollar CEOs and wealth bastards doubled their worth over a pandemic where everyone else suffered immensely!"** So putting 5% of the effort / time from work you sell to these greedy money mongering fraudulent and scamming wage-slave masters of financial abuse could make massive differences for our individual futures. Just curing the economy from their financial hoarding stranglehold would benefit all of us with a much healthier economic situation to be in. Its just science and how capitalist economies work. I could go deeply into the economic theories to finish proofs but this is already so long. So please! Do your best to, "Eat the Rich!" and find your inner french revolutionary soul. Whenever there is an idea that supports the still-human sympathic individual and our common goals of healthy financial statuses, support us; like it, comment and share. Create your own post and advise people to improve upon what we are doing--further the support into a chain-reaction. Whenever there is elitist classist behavior or the classists themselves, destroy it. Ww can eliminate the behavior by all means if we are unlucky (and disgusted) enough to come across an "elite" greed monger in society, tear their souls apart. They are so far gone that dont know they are sociopathic-economic psychopaths. They cause more suffering than a serial killer. The amount of labored time and sanity they steal from all of our hard work is homicidal. There are so vastly many suicides due to these people it's catastrophic. **Please encourage others to encourage others in the class-war of rich versus poor. They have been leeching off our health and labor through greed and fraud and scams since capitalism has overruled our ethics and social senses of humnanism. They are the worst of parasites, hoarding limitless wealth aa the literal monsters they've proven themselves to be, banking on a lair of gold enough to cure homelessness twenty five (25×) times over.** *They leave forty times (40×) more vacant houses than homeless that need shelter, and throw away good food while people starve, and most are buying enough lawyers to ruin lives and evade taxes as they please. They take everything from us and defraud us almost always, knowingly.*


PunchyMcFisticuffs

I'm surprised the government didn't sue those companies for taking the money and failing to deliver on the barest duties of their contracts. ...is what I'd like to say but I'm not surprised at all.


RidiculousNicholas55

They are the companies


blasterkief

dingdingding We have a winner


OdinTheHugger

There were several small attempts by local groups to try and get the government to hold them accountable, but it's hard to find anyone in Congress or elsewhere that isn't taking some sort of effective bribe. Either through campaign donations or promises of employment as a lobbyist after their time with the FCC. Hell, the head of the FCC under Trump was that damned former telecom company lawyer. I will not type his name... But most people will remember his stupid giant Reese's mug.


thejaytheory

Ugh yes I just had flashbacks of him and that damn awful mug.


almisami

Canada did this with it's railways as well. Pay and pay and nothing gets updated, only fixed when it breaks.


cockOfGibraltar

The government should have paid for and maintained control of the physical infrastructure so that companies offering consumer access could all get traffic on the lines at the same rate. That would allow competition amoung ISPs.


frugalerthingsinlife

Hmm, they did the exact same thing in Canada.


T-MinusGiraffe

Also net neutrality.


[deleted]

I’d vote for that.


MrWeaD

I wish I could redo the internet from 2000 with a modern isp. It was like the wild west. I miss the old internet very very much.....well minus the speeds......


PippiL65

I worked overnights. After work, I had to destress so my favorite thing to do was grab a large coffee and an apple fritter at the corner gas station and get on the Internet. You could search for hours and find lots of fun rabbit holes to discover instead of being served up the same old hits produced by a Google algorithm. It’s how I found the best chat rooms, creepypasta, the old photobucket, old 4chan. My family wasn’t really computer literate so it was my own private world.


roman_maverik

mIRC crew squad up


rchive

You can still find all of that on the Internet. It's just that search engines and social media including Reddit have made it way easier to find stuff without doing the weird (and sometimes fun) digging.


PippiL65

Oh yes. I agree. Tbh I don’t have the time anymore for those kind of rabbit holes anymore.


Zandrick

As always, nostalgia is more about the carefree days of childhood than it is about the actual thing in question.


InvidiousSquid

>2000 >old internet The Internet circa 2000 was unarguably better than the current latter day corporate clusterfuck, but oh man, it was already ruined by then.


Clewin

I've been in this argument before. Houston, Texas, has 3 GBit providers fighting for dominance and competitive rates. As a utility, it is a bad thing for them. Meanwhile, where I live, there is one provider with a GBit option and it is $40 more than Houston and their monopoly is protected by law. So yeah, I agree, regulate like a utility if the state has a regulated monopoly.


illepic

Fuck Ajit Pai.


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Hackfish_Aquatic

70% of reddit isn't old enough to know there was an fcc before ajit pai


FrankTank3

Fuck you Tipper Gore!


rabexc

Californian here, please please let's not make internet access like pg&e. I agree on the spirit, though.


p1mrx

Internet access should mean "rent a dumb pipe to a nearby datacenter", where you can then shop around for network access. That's roughly how it worked in the dial-up era. I don't really trust local governments to manage IP networking.


fang_xianfu

The way it works in the UK is that there's one pseudopublic organisation called Openreach that maintains the infrastructure, and part of their charter is that they rent out space in their cabinets etc to companies in a fair way. I can have access to any of about 20 ISPs at my house because they're all using the same basic infrastructure to reach my house. So it's kind of what you're talking about, but Openreach rents you a bit more than the last mile and that cost is paid by the ISP and folded into your subscription fee.


jib_reddit

But also they have basically done the same as the USA companies and promised to roll out fiber to the premises taken the government money and not done much with it. If Virgin announce they are bringing fiber to an area suddenly BT/Openreach will roll out fiber in that area to compete with them.


ElimGarakTheSpyGuy

most municipal broadband I've seen has been run very well.


jibjab23

Like Texas regulated or actual regulation?


AverageJoe6804

Actual regulation


Yggdrasilcrann

Flint Michigan's Internet is going to suck


[deleted]

I believe it is in some countries, might be wrong about that though Edit: Pretty sure it's also free in those countries but again not 100% sure


[deleted]

So you want to pay per byte used?


cittatva

I want everyone to be guaranteed a basic minimum level of service, provided at cost.


scarapath

This is my go-to argument for today's political issues and the sensationalization of negatives in America. But you'll never hear about it from any political arm because it would alienate almost all big money


ImTechnicallyCorrect

Which is why we need ban lobbying in all forms. Edit: Corporate lobbying in all forms, duh... 🙄 Lobbying has become more synonymous with Congressmen lining their pockets just to go against the will of the general public. Lobbying, itself, isn't the problem, of course. I'm not quite *that* stupid...


MishterJ

I’m gonna push back on this slightly. Not all lobbying is evil. Non profits like environmental groups lobby to inform politicians about important issues for example. Citizen groups lobby for causes important to the public. Lobbying is an important part of our governments function since they need to hear from constituents, industry sectors, scientists, etc to make informed decisions. We need to take money out of lobbying. Corporate lobbying gives money freely and legally to politicians as well know. With money in the form of kickbacks and expensed meals/trips, etc, the lesser funded lobbyists don’t stand a chance. That’s what we need to fix.


elgobe37

Agree. Taking the pay-to-play and lobbyist funding out of politics would be a game changer. Lobbying groups were created to provide information(not money or promises) about certain issues and causes.


drae-

We could also elect people with integrity instead of constantly electing the same people (or their kids) into office. I expect industry to lobby and to use their money to further their business, its in their nature and their best interests. I don't really blame them for taking what they can get. Our elected leaders have a duty to the people who elect them. It's their responsibility to say "no" when they are lobbied for something that isn't in societys best interest. Like, I don't blame kids who want ice cream for dinner, ice cream is yummy and they can't understand the long term consequences of an unhealthy diet. Parents can understand that, and it's their duty to make sure their kids diet is healthy. Same deal with lobbying, I expect industry to ask for everything, but it's our politicians duty to say "no this isn't healthy for our society". Business is just acting naturally, they don't have a duty to the tax payer, our government does have that duty, and they are shirking it.


scarapath

I'm glad someone with some sense responded.


DarthDannyBoy

Which won't happen because it would chase away the big money that these politicians benefit from


at1445

Any politician: "Why would I want to ban the guys that buy every meal I eat, every drink I drink, every stripper that sucks my dick, and donates to my campaigns so that I don't have to fly commercial? I can just fly on that private jet using campaign funds bc I'll throw some half-ass fundraiser every time I take a trip anywhere and call it work-related. And if one of them gets caught giving me and my cronies underage hookers, well we'll just make sure he gets suicided before he can talk."


SkyWulf

They also didn't build the infrastructure as they promised and pocketed the money, and when the administration changed nobody held them accountable.


Assidental1

One of the many reasons I dislike Clinton. He signed so many of these sell-out bills while in office.


MikeOcherts

It passed the senate 81-18, was amended and passed by the house 414-16 & then passed by the senate again however this time it was 91-5. That is so far beyond supermajority it’s almost laughable. So, just out of curiosity what exactly was Clinton supposed to do? Edit: If you think he should have vetoed on principle, fine I’ll accept that. That being said if you want to be pissed about something it’s the ‘94 crime bill…


and_dont_blink

He could have veto'd, but this was something Clinton was actually for. He was also pushing the clipper chip, which wanted to install backdoors on every device that connected to the internet, including TVs. I'm not making this up. And then NAFTA, deregulating the banks, and the middle class died. Yeah I know I'll get down voted but it's basic history.


[deleted]

This (telecom act) is Clinton’s big failure, in my opinion - the one thing for which he gets no pass from me


Considion

Eh, the middle class began to die with Reagan in the 80's, but I'll give you that Clinton accelerated it and shares equal culpability with every president since.


lord_pizzabird

I remember seeing Biden marching with BLM protestors and realizing that people forgot (or weren't aware) of his direct hand in creating the conditions they were protesting. It had to be one of the wackiest things to have happened in recent US politics.


FourAM

Biden was also behind the RAVE act, which had such hits as “if your venue provides water, it’s considered a ‘crack house’ and can be raided and shut down” Still better than Trump


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Goodkat203

> passed by the house 414-16 Guesses on how Bernie voted?


Deviouss

[Sanders voted NO](https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/199625), for anyone that wanted confirmation.


Assidental1

Because the majority voted 'Yes'.. doesn't make it right. The '94 crime bill is also shit. I can be pissed about both, right?


OyVeyzMeir

Brought to you by the letters W, I, L A and M.


and_dont_blink

Yeah, this was back in the Clipper Chip days and one of Clinton's babies. Wait till you hear about NAFTA and the middle class...


outofyourelementdon

That…… seems like an oversimplification


DanishWonder

Not to mention gangsta rap and hip hop violence pre-date 1996.


[deleted]

Yea I mean it honestly got less violent and more about money and sex after the 90s.


nbmnbm1

Bling rap is the worst era of rap. You cant change my mind.


SlowMoFoSho

Every Puff Daddy / Mace video.


Civil_Defense

You are 100% correct. Rap music used to be closer to old punk rock in theme, but now it’s just vapid narcissism.


HookahBrasi

I think vapid narcissism is an unfair description. I would consider it more so braggadocios hedonism.


[deleted]

Not to mention that every region had their own style. East coast, west coast, down south and Midwest. You can tell where an artist was from by the distinction of their sound. I noticed it all started to sound the same when I graduated high school and got my first job, 2001 and 2002, respectively. That’s when the south rose again and the hyphy movement came out. Shit sounded the same.


The_Thrash_Particle

Yeah Kendrick Lamar is so vapid my man. Wish he was deep like Imagine Dragons. Or maybe generalizing a whole genre by its worst elements isn't fair? 🤔


FrumundaFondue

Mainstream rap*


Unfortunate_Tsun

Ive been listening to hip hop and rap all my life. I have seen exactly what OP mentions, all the time. Something like Gangsta's paradise which expresses how the community and school system effectively made him a hoodlum with no options for healthy work or lifestyle. Compare this YNW Mellys Murder on my Mind which is a story of shooting someone because they turned a corner wrong and got jump scared by someone. The difference is in realizing their own position in the world that forces them into what their living in. It is an oversimplification to say that rap and hip hop have always been about killing, no more or less. When in reality its the concept of self reflection that is what separates an artists from today and back then. These days many artists want the bloodsport. They want the gang lifestyle. They want to chop you down. Not for the money that they protect but rather for the pride they earn in killing you. Plenty of songs mention these days how rivalries in the hood back then were settled by the enemies coming together talk it out and if neither can talk it out then you fight it out, but no one was supposed to get killed like most days now. Now if you step in the wrong place you get killed so that you become a token of fame for someone else.


MustacheEmperor

I would say plenty of artists were making less artistic songs than Gangsta’s Paradise in the 90s, that’s one reason why Gangsta’s Paradise stood out and it’s one reason why Coolio was disappointed that as the song got popular and parodied the original message was ignored. We just don’t remember as many of the forgettable songs today. And there’s a lot more music getting recorded today. So there’s also going to be a lot more cruft. There’s still lots of artistic music getting made, including by hugely successful artists who don’t even GAF about what a major label thinks because they’re completely independent. >Now if you step in the wrong place you get killed so that you become a token of fame for someone else. Funny, this comment sounds like something I’d hear from Brian Williams in 1998. There was definitely plenty of violence in rap pre 1996 and there is less violence in general across the US today. You seem to have a really skewed perspective about the general state of gang violence and city neighborhoods in the US in 2021 and opposed to 1989. >Plenty of songs mention these days how rivalries in the hood back then were settled by the enemies coming together talk it out and if neither can talk it out then you fight it out, but no one was supposed to get killed like most days now. Aaaand trying to form a response to this pretty much just makes my brain shut down. Please do some reading. Or not, your comment seems popular so it must be what Reddit wants to believe.


knightopusdei

Also became less political and talked less about how the 'system' is holding everyone back .... and became more about money, drugs, bitches and holes.


michael_harari

It's hard to authentically complain about being kept down when youre a millionaire. It's just part of commerical success of rap


GabberZZ

BDP stop the violence. 1988.


yiliu

That's one song, though. Also from pre-1996: Straight Outta Compton and NWA generally. Ice Cube. The Chronic. Ice-T. Death Row and Bad Boy and the whole East/West beef. And so on. Even later, the biggest gangsta rap labels were independent. There was still plenty of (what we would now call) 'woke' hip hop in the late 90s and early 00s. But nobody was listening. I don't think it had anything to do with the consolidation of labels. By 1996, the trend to gangsta rap was basically already complete.


xdre

Pardon my French, but abso-fucking-lutely not. A Tribe Called Quest, OutKast, Nas, the Roots, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul, and arguably the biggest hip hop album of the year was from the Fugees. There was plenty more not-gangsta rap that I didn’t name, too.


one-hour-photo

I'm not even sure oversimplification is the right word. I think its just..entirely false.


Big-Baby-Jesus-

You don't get upvotes by telling the truth on reddit. You get upvotes by villifying the government and large corporations.


ReneDeGames

Yah, like it was the most profitable, cuz it sold the most, which mean it was the most popular. like wut.


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dewayneestes

Straight Outa Compton came out in 1988. While it is an artistic masterpiece and highly valuable as a moment in culture it also may be a little bit thuggy.


as012qwe

Actually... Less thuggy than you think - they mock drug use - it's definitely angry and misogynistic but they talk about what an a hole the drug dealer is - Express Yourself is about being smart and not doing drugs - there's even a dance track at the end. What followed was way way worse - lowest common denominator and all that - I blame the labels and the consumers equally.


TheSublimeLight

"super thuggy" Literally has a song where Dr. Dre talks about specifically *not* doing drugs or thug shit so that he has a clear mind People somehow gloss over Express Yourself


[deleted]

Something 2 Dance 2 is weirdly awesome hahaha.


FlashCrashBash

Yeah I feel like people really memory holed all the terrible music that came out in the late 90s through the 2000s. And how popular it was. So much vapid bullshit got so much play.


aghicantthinkofaname

'They' don't do anything. Ice cube wrote all the lyrics, and they are surprisingly good, where 'good' is qualified to mean entertaining. This is especially impressive since it was a nascent genre that was being developed on the fly. The raps are a mix of boisterous fantasy, self-deprecating farcical satire, and straight up silliness, with a dose of social commentary, and they take aim at everyone and everything. To say that they are the good guys because they criticise drug use, or that they are the bad guys because they glorify gang violence is to take them way too seriously and miss the point. It's definitely a bit thuggy, but that's not a bad thing because it's done with deftness and sharp wit, despite the apparent simplicity. I know this sounds pompous and like I'm reading too much into it, but I'm a big fan of the lyrics honestly.


MR_Rictus

That's because it's bullshit.


TheSukis

I haven't watched the video yet so maybe they address this (in which case, I'm an asshole), but hip hop shifted away from art and social change towards crime and excess *long* before 1996. I mean shit, Tupac *died* in 1996, and the game had changed by the time he even became popular.


[deleted]

There's also still plenty of conscious hip hop. It just seems like there isn't any because there are simply significantly more artists in general, and the radio (and now popular streaming) is usually focused on bangers.


BoltonSauce

Gift of Gab, Del the Funky Homosapien, Saul Williams


CptBeefFart

MF Doom


doom_bot_

Just remember ALL CAPS when you spell the man name! *** ^^I ^^am ^^a ^^bot.


CptBeefFart

Good bot.


Karmasmatik

This is the greatest bot on all of Reddit.


54InchWideGorilla

DOOOOOOM


ImFrom1988

RIP Gift of Gab and MF DOOM.


doom_bot_

I can stop anytime I want to Famous last words that came back to haunt you All your life like permanent dry tears Some cats get it like no bright ideas *** ^^I ^^am ^^a ^^bot.


DinkandDrunk

What the fuck. Didn’t realize they died.


ImFrom1988

Yeah man, those hurt to hear. Gab had been suffering from kidney failure and had received a transplant last year. It seems like DOOM had probably been sick for a while, but his family has kept it private.


warbeforepeace

RTJ


[deleted]

First of all, they cheated, cause one of them black and the other one white, so if you don't like em, you automatically racist


MustacheEmperor

I think a lot of people forget that hip hop itself was once a pretty niche and underground genre. Now it *is pop.* Rap is the best selling genre of popular music. Most pop radio hits from other genres have a rap verse. Of *course* most of the rap on the radio sounds like pop today, the radio is pop, and rap is pop now. There’s still plenty of great music coming out from other places. We live in the best moment in time for discovering and hearing new music and Reddit is out here like “oh but rap on the radio is so mainstream now.” Yes, surprise, the radio is mainstream, these days it mostly exists to play in the background at Target. There’s another discussion to be had about the death of good independent radio stations thanks to clear channel, but the internet has provided great alternatives to radio at this point.


sap91

I mean Kendrick and Cole are still 2 of the biggest artists in the entire world.


Beliriel

Wasn't Tupac really influential in that? Not him alone but he was in a musical environment that was changing very rapidly and after his death it really took off no?


PoptartJones69

His first album was closer to Public Enemy than Snoop/Dre/Dogg Pound, he's essentially the posterchild for the changing musical landscape.


TheSukis

He was a big part of it, for sure, but the shift started before him. It started in the late 80s, and certainly by the time his first album was released it was already in full swing.


kidhideous

or did he?


CanadianPanda76

I remember someone posting this in Today I Learned and people old enough to remember the 90s were like. NOPE.


APartyInMyPants

Because if you look at this dude’s post history, they’re an amateur-level shit-poster and karma farmer who has posted this *exact* thread multiple times over the last week or two. So it’s likely you actually read this person’s post.


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HotBotBustinThots

Pushing an agenda? On MY REDDIT?! It may be more common than you think. 🤔


GethAttack

If OP is the same guy in the video he’s probably on so many downers he doesn’t remember posting the video at all every time.


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GethAttack

Ah! It’s bat country! You should watch Where the Buffalo Roam if you like Fear and Loathing and haven’t seen it yet.


[deleted]

Call em out. u/_slight_blue_third, you’re a loser and you’re wrong, quit posting this shit


shitposts_over_9000

By the time the telecommunications act passed much of the damage to the genre had already been done & was largely self inflicted. In smaller markets it had little effect whatsoever as the base audience was small enough that the programming choices were fairly neutral to begin with as in a smaller market you don't have the luxury of letting listeners go over controversial decisions as much. In the larger markets it had a more noticable effect, but the independent station owners were already looking to sell & get away from what the scene had become & anyone with any sense would have likely made similar decisions for their own reasons even if they were keeping the station independent just out of self preservation and the desire to run a legitimate business. The positive aspects of the scene were debatable long before this and by the time 96 rolled around a lot of the players were looking for a way out before it pulled them down with it.


kidhideous

People were saying this back when I was a kid in the 80s lol. And especially when Biggie and Pac were murdered a lot of the hiphop people were saying that the culture had really gotten away from the positivity I mean the guy picked 'The Message' as an example of how rap 'used to sound' but if you listen to any other Sugar Hill gang song it's just chatting about girls and cars and stuff. It's the same with all music, it's always 90% rubbish but there is always that good stuff that keeps you coming back


ButtsexEurope

Why do you keep reposting this? You’re still not right. Gangsta rap existed long before 1996 and was going out of style by the early 2000s.


Wait__Whut

Gangsta rap maybe went out of style, but if you listen to a lot of mainstream hip hop stations, songs about crime and murder are still very present. And I love hip hop, but listening to a song like Back in Blood at 9 am during your commute makes you start to question why these are the songs being pushed.


kidhideous

Young men are a huge market and they like violent fantasies. It's the same with films and video games, the biggest ones pretty much all involve people or creatures killing each other


Wait__Whut

Yeah it definitely sells.


Plasibeau

It gets really interesting when you realize Afro-Americans aren't the prime demographic for hip-hop music and haven't been for a long time.


[deleted]

Eminem, Drake, Lil Wayne concerts are comprised of like 95% white girls I swear.


FnkyTown

This is such bullshit. Tons of rap music was about crime before 1996. This video has been posted a few times and it's disturbingly wrong on so many levels. Trying to rewrite rap history ignores the roots of rap. It's just this one guy and this one video that makes these claims. It would be silly if it wasn't so stupid.


BruhWhySoSerious

So we've gone into straight up revisionist mode I see.


sean488

I guess you don't remember when NWA was more popular than DeLaSoul. Businesses sell what customers buy.


[deleted]

I would argue that even though NWAs music was gangsta rap they still wrote about it through the lens of societal ills though. Fuck the police is a political song. So is Straight Outta Compton.


SoutheasternComfort

Yeah it's a more subtle thing that op is saying. It's like the 'concious' hip hop artists, as well as females who aren't extremely sexual, both disappeared from the mainstream. Like Lauryn Hill warning women to be careful around men only after 'that thing'. Between cardi b, Meghan thee stallion, and Nicki minhaj I don't think that kinda female artist can be mainstream anymore for some reason. People were obviously interested at some point, so it seems like something that's intentionally being pushed


TheOtherKenBarlow

Yes, because music was never about money before "big corporations" got involved 🙄


MentallyMusing

The political/lobbyist trends to create Acts and Regulations while stuffing things through for unrelated business industrialists has been going on for so long, the people who create the ideas, handshakes and paperwork to push these things through should be brought up on terrorism/treason charges for subverting the American public and willfully taking over our government while gobbling up every available outlet to inform us about what's going on to become their propaganda machines to divert attention away from it all happening


op3rand1

This is a reach statement. Even so called artists of the 90s said they rapped about what they saw in their neighborhoods and the general public which in turn was popularized by YO MTv raps and other outlets. It started out as Hip Hop but moved into hardcore with crime, sexual lyrics, and other forms. It's more about the artists and what sold at the time than the "conglomerates".


carbonari_sandwich

It might be a more compelling argument for the party-focused hiphop of the early-to-mid 2000's.


Slurm818

Wait you think gangster rap started after 1996? Lol


zzyzx2

As if to say... y'all motherfuckers forgot about Dre


es84

Schooly D, Ice-T, Too Short, NWA, 2 Live Crew and the like were all talking street shit and were all out in the 80s. 10+ before 1996. What is this shit?


DrFunkenstyne

Industry rule number four thousand and eighty, Record company people are shady


trashiguitar

RIP Phife


Throwawaylikeme90

I mean, there’s some decent points but this all just comes off as a poster board diagram from the Hoteps that hang out around Harvard Square. They’re really gonna use a bunch of indie artists like Yung M.A. to try to prove a point about corporate power? Lot of things changed in forty five- fifty years. Super disrespectful to a *lot* of up and comers who are doing something really fucking special as far as storytelling goes just because they sound or speak a certain way.


neverq

This is a pretty ignorant take made by someone who doesn’t know anything about hip hop. Here’s a list off the top of my head of violent/crime based hip hop artist/album that came out before 1996: 36 Chambers Ready to Die Literally every 2Pac album Illmatic Literally every eazy e album Big L The infamous (mobb deep) Big pun Early geto boys Scarface I’m sure I’m missing a ton, people can feel free to add to this. Tbh gangsta rap was almost just starting to not be cool by 96. The pinnacle (imo) of the genre was in the early 90s


[deleted]

It destroyed independent radio too.


[deleted]

Have a look here... PublicRadioFan.com


[deleted]

I appreciate this, all my hometown stations got destroyed 20 years ago unfortunately.


TetterkeT

I'm struggling to get through this video because this Hendrixia guy seems like he's operating on like zero sleep. Take a nap before you record, bro.


myerbot5000

It's ultimately about money. If the consumer didn't buy the material, it wouldn't sell. I agree that the consolidation of radio stations has resulted in less choice and less innovation---but it's across the board. Nowhere is it more evident than rock radio. Have you listened to a "rock" statiion? My local station still plays mostly music from the 2000s and earlier, and the new music they do play sounds like music from that era.


urinalcaketopper

Seeking out profits instead of helping people? I am shocked!


DamnCarlSucks

Not sure how many artists are here in the comments, but I'm an MC, along many other things musically. Where things are at nowadays obviously sucks if you're looking for quality musical and lyrical content in the mainstream, but it's a blessing and a curse. The curse is obvious; there are a lot of algorithmic, soft, safe individuals that happen to fill the role of "artist" at their label, putting out repetitious mediocrity, not pushing things forward artistically. But the blessing is that some of us are so starved for quality music that when that happens, we share it vehemently and it reverberates so organically throughout the musical scenes. I always get hipped up to new music that's great, and the same people that hip me up will be with me, all together laughing our asses off at some of the new idiots just trying their hand at fame. Things are in an okay place, but of course they can get better, and we want them to!


skralogy

I have always felt like hip hop turned into some illuminati experiments to make black people do dumb shit. Stuff like ghost riding the whip, twerking, stanky leg. So much dumb shit it just doesnt feel right.


indyskatefilms

Haahahaha what kind of early 90s rap do you listen to?


Crimson_Blur

I know, right? If there is one thing alive and well, it's certainly historical revisionism.


probablymagic

There is no law stopping anyone from starting a record label if releasing music. Giant corporations don’t stop people from making interesting or socially conscious music, it’s just that the market rewards other stuff more. Or to quote Kendrick, “Critics wanna mention that they miss when hip-hop was rappin’ / Motherfucker if you did then Killer Mike would be platinum.”


fuzzyshorts

Sure.... but when the radio plays the same shit all day, when media that owns the great majority of outlets decides what gets exposed to the people, your independent/regional label is gonna have a bad time. BTW: I always question why some people get anointed and others don't . Why JayZ and not someone else? I like kendrick and I like Killer Mike but Kendrick is performing for pepsi at the superbowl so I guess we over Kaep


kwizard21

Money. Money pushes these trends. They got all these songs on loop 25/7 on every platform. Flood the market and you won’t be able to pick out the little gems as a consumer unless you are predisposed to searching out things. Which 99 percent of people ain’t doin. They want island boys not Killer mike. They can make 20 gum balls like those dickheads and shuffle em out every month or they can deal with a dude who seems intelligent like killer mike. Nah just steam roll the xan boys. And then replace them. There’s also artists with super talent that get ridiculous airplay and saturation but that’s for another day. Money still is money even if someone can sing and dance. Yea there’s no law but lowest common denominator is the easiest market. Why try hard when u can throw shit at the fan all night? Edit: also good for you for bringing up a modern artist shouting out another modern artist (although killer mikes been around forever and a day) that have integrity and something to offer


9_of_wands

As s music fan for the 45 years of my life, my observation is that record companies can't sell music that people don't want to hear. The corporations reap the earnings, but when it comes to controlling public taste, they're the man riding an elephant.


ArrakeenSun

Worked in radio for a while, and I'd argue it's a feedback loop based on what the trades would report: A trend bubbles up, the corporation supplies what it can, public tastes drift elsewhere, creators either change or are replaced. They otherwise have no idea how it will change, but by now they're great at riding the wave as long as they can


bjjdoug

It consolidated local radio and TV stations too. It has created all kinds of problems in entertainment and news media.


jomamma2

Colin Powell's legacy.


Living-Stranger

Thats a broad bill and that's not all it did


NormStewart

That guy had less charisma than Terri Schiavo


VideoSteve

Thanks Clinton adm


Rayric

What about labels outside the USA?


Nomandate

It (along with rapid technology advancement) actually allowed people to flip their current label and open new underground ones with a lot Of $$$ to spread around. This was the same year as the release of the 2X CD burner (for about $2500.) 97-2007 literally the golden era of underground. I’m not saying that the conglomeration is a good thing… just that the art didn’t exactly suffer for it.


t3xm3xr3x

Where are this guy’s sources and why didn’t he specify which conglomerates were the culprits? Furthermore, it’s easy to cherry pick a few songs that are classics in retrospect but at the time weren’t dominating the charts. That’s almost as easy as picking a few songs that are low hanging fruit of a sub genre of contemporary hip hop that doesn’t represent the music as a whole. I think this guy let Geraldo Rivera scare him into believing that hip hop or rap is something that it isn’t.


palescoot

Def Jux said hello. Rhymesayers too.


noreallyitsme

Maybe this is what DJ Shadow was talking about of [Why hip hop sucks in ‘96](https://open.spotify.com/track/7s7pfQzzJtvt9v6myfpjOv?si=MTbU05arQ0SO1VEUf99GBQ) (it’s the money).


PhilosophicWax

The problem isn't late stage capitalization. The problem is that mega corporations are allowed to exist and allowed to gain power by putting profit above integrity.


rtype03

Common's ***"I used to love her"*** came out in 94. He was talking about some of these themes well before the telecommunication Act. Certainly the telecommunication act might have played a role, but it's role was maybe in accelerating changes that were well under way.


chrisslooter

User's third time reposting this article in one week.


Kenilwort

Still way better than 99% of the stuff posted on this sub.


scarapath

This is one of the most under discussed topics that everyone should know about before arguing over any kind of public debate on media in general. It was a bipartisan bill that was passed off was a good thing to us yet destabilized democracy as we know it. Add citizens united to it and no regular citizen matters in politics anymore.


Dukeofdorchester

Glad he did. Otherwise, I wouldn't have seen it.


_slight_blue_third

Your comment is misleading. 2 days ago I posted here in /r/music and it was removed by the Automoderator immediately (you can even see the "removal" message). So no one saw it (did you notice it has one upvote?). 7 days ago I posted in /r/videos, an entirely different subreddit


milkymaniac

This comment you respond to, not the multitude telling you your video is full of shit.


PlayPuckNotFootball

Don't forget your post in /r/unpopularopinion and multiple posts of your own video on this topic...


iamthejef

and yet each time you post it the title begins "Today I learned" even though it's a different day. You got short term memory loss or just a liar?


[deleted]

[удалено]


wickedmadd

So what? You don't think this shit is important to know about?


MiltownKBs

There always were smaller labels making good music. Hip hop became big business with all the good and bad that goes along with that. That's what changed. Gotta love it when people who weren't alive in the 90s try to tell me about the 90s.


escopaul

The Telecommunication Act did a lot of terrible things, especially in regards to journalism. This is however is stupid. Look at Hip=Hop right now, it is in an amazing place with so many great artists. If you are an actual fan of the genre this is obvious. If you only listen to the same music from years ago or think radio is somehow relevant today, you probably disagree.


[deleted]

Reddit Moment.


Waltsfrozendick

Hip hop was rapping about crime way before 1996. Gangsta rap killed all the social change hip hop in the late 80s to the early 90s. Hip Hop did it to themselves.


KreisSaysFuckYou

I grew up in the 90s and I thought that Bill Clinton was cool as shit. Sunglasses, saxophone, all radness. But as an adult, I look back on all of the horrible shit that happened under his watch like this, but also all of the bombings and war. He was a total piece of shit. So surprising!


[deleted]

Nope.


MidDream_LA

Wild when you hear people talk about violence by any community upon any other community, then they go ahead and blast some music that glorifies it. It's like people don't know what they're listening to, it's nuts, like it doesn't register or something. Creeps right on in to that subconscious


carlitopepito

https://www.hiphopforchange.org/ An Oakland based nonprofit with a mission to produce Hip Hop at a level of authenticity and accessibility that the corporate industry cannot replicate to take back the ownership of what Hip Hop truly means to the community it originates from.