GeoClan.com welcomes Shane Daniels to the World Family. Daniels, a senior at West Chester University has big time dreams and thoughts so enjoy and stay tuned for more!

What has Hip Hop become? 

What started out as a medium for expressing social reality among urban youth has become merely fantasy rap and wishful thinking.  What ever happened to 'keeping it real?'  Many rappers today talk about keeping it 'real,' but few rarely do. 

For example, a majority of rappers today talk about crack, coke, the 'hood', and having sex with many different women in such a way that they glorify these things like everything is all good when in reality its not.  If we're going to talk about the 'hood'  and about how many guns you got, lets talk about 'why' you think you have to have a gun in the first place.  Lets talk about 'why' our neighborhoods look the way they do or why we don't even own the blocks that we stand on.  Lets talk about 'why' many feel like they have to sell 'crack' or drugs just to make it in society.

Lets talk about why so many black men feel like their only way out of the 'hood' is by rapping or playing basketball.  Lets discuss why people of color are still misrepresented on television, in the media, and in politics.  When we begin to talk about the full 'reality' of the situation, then we can say that we're keeping it real.

And why does every song take place in the 'club?' Better yet a club that we don't even own.  It makes me mad that we talk about so much 'gold' and 'ice' to the same people that can't afford to have what these rappers are talking about. Lets talk about how, if most of these rappers weren't 'rapping' then they would be back in the 'hood' hoping to get 'put on' or wishing to eventually get signed by some record label.  Lets talk about that. 

So since we're going to continue to talk about 'stuff' that most of us don't have (unless we sell 'coke' or kill to get) or even see, we'll continue to live and sing in fantasy if we don't talk about the reasons and truths behind our music. I know we don't have to be serious all the time, but will we ever get for real, for real? Hey, I'm just telling you why I'm mad, son. Pay Attention Please.