Conscious Rap ~ Spreading Truth Through Music #tommacdonald

Growing up with with a big family, I was closest with my two older brothers who are 2 & 4 years older. As most younger siblings, I imagine would say, they have a big influence on a lot of the things you like or dislike. Music being a big one. I'll never forget sitting in the back seat of my brothers car, my dad's old Lincoln town car, listening to Changes by Tupac. Besides Tupac, there were others of course in the rap game, like Biggie, Bone Thugs, Snoop, Ice Cube, Dre, Em, and countless others that flowed through and rattled the old town car.

source

Dear rappers, can you help me?
Are you almost out of alcohol to sell me? Tell me
'Cause drinkin' every night can't be the way to gettin' wealthy

Rap was different back then. I guess it was technically considered Gangster Rap, but at least they were genuine. Most songs had a personal message, something close to the artist that they were trying to convey. Whether it was their difficult upbringing, having a fatherless home, sometimes mixed with having a drug addicted mother, or being white and not fitting in with the presumed black culture that rap had at the time. They were real, honest, and could lyrically put it together so that it flowed...not an easy task, try it sometime and see how far you get, it ain't easy.

Fast forward to my Freshman year of HS, my brother @roundoar03 would always drive me to and from school since we went to the same HS. One day after classes, instead of going straight home, he drove us to Best Buy to pick up the new CD release from Rascal Flatts. For those younger readers, Best Buy is a brick and mortar store where you can buy many different varieties of electronics. CD's are things us older people used to listen to music on. And Rascal Flatts was arguably (and still is) one of the most popular country bands of all time. You're welcome for the history lesson, free of charge ;)

source

After giving my brother crap on the way home for listening to such sissy music, I couldn't help but want more of this music. Maybe it was the smile and joy it gave my brother, and I too wanted that. Or maybe it was a new outlet for me to explore outside of the rap I had been consuming my whole life. This was when Nelly was really big, rap had changed. It was all about boats & hoes, Cristal and TV's in headrests. Gone for the most part was the realness, the genuine and honest stories that the artist had actually lived.

It happened...Besides Em's curtain call album, and the chronic, I was basically out of rap music. I was now a country music connoisseur, and have been ever since. I still like the old stuff, but this new stuff was so fake to me.

I did some research, and apparently from 2001-current, there has been a transformation from gangster rap, to mumble rap. I literally just heard the term mumble rap a few weeks ago. The questions I asked myself were 'did I even know this rap transformation happened?', 'was I so inundated with country music that I didn't even notice?', 'or did I see the downfall to this crap and choose not to listen to it?'...I don't know to be honest. Probably a little bit of everything. Younger people I would encounter would ask me if I heard the new Drake song, or if I liked any of the '3 lils, Peep, Pump, or Yachty'. Yes, those are names of actual rappers....lil yachty...no, I don't even know who that is. It sounds like a midget deckhand or something, not a notable rap artist. But this is where rap currently sits. On the throne of mumbles.

That was until I got introduced to a rapper from Canada named Tom Macdonald. Now there's a white name if I've ever heard one. I'll give him props for not making a stage name as terrible as lil yachty, but Tom Macdonald doens't strike most people as a rap killa.

But 10 seconds into the first rap I had ever heard of his, I was hooked. It was titled white boy, and it spoke more honest truth than any rap I had heard since I was sitting behind my brothers rapping along with Tupac in the Lincoln.

source

The white race as a whole ain't the enemy
There's racist white people but we're far from that collectively

If a black man is sippin' on some Cognac sittin' next to me
I don't assume that every black's favorite drink is Hennessy

I would never hate a man for what God gave him in pigments
And I would never plot against him just because he is different
I would never judge a human for the cards he was given
Or call them lesser than myself 'cause of the race that he's mixed with

Conscious Rap is what he calls it. And I like where he's headed. Numerous other songs like helluvit, politically incorrect, dear rappers, and american dreamz are all tales of his truths, most of which I can't help but agree with. You may not like rap for many reasons, whether it be the swearing, drug references, women references, or what have you...but you owe it to yourself to take a listen to a few of his songs to see if his message rings any truth to you.

I would love to get back on to the rap bandwagon if this whole conscious rap thing takes hold. Surprisingly to me, he doesn't have all that many YT subscribers, and only one or two videos have over a million hits. Which is a lot of views don't get me wrong, but I would have figured he would have blown up by now. Hopefully by me making this post, he gets there faster than he would have.

Let me know what you think of his music. Thanks for reading, and listening. Steem on.