Originally Posted by Terumoto

Mainstream is mainstream... That's all there is to it. Half of the people on your list are not mainstream anymore. They were in their time, but now they aren't. Tupac? Biggie? Wu Tang? I love those artists as much as the next guy, but they sure as fuck aren't mainstream. Mainstream is what is in the mainstream RIGHT NOW, not what was in there 10 years ago.

I barely ever listen to underground rap. I don't produce rap music, except for when I sometimes make beats. And with all that stuff you were going on about to do with "CEO labelling" or whatever, you completely misunderstood what I said to you in my last post. I'm not going to tell you again, because it's something that I don't think you will understand.

I stand by what I said... You know next to nothing about music. The fact that when I said that to you, you took "music" to mean only rap music proves my point. If you broadened your musical horizons, you would start to get a sense of what is good music and what isn't. This has nothing to do with whether people like the music or not. It's something factual, objective, good music has certain elements and is put together in a certain way, it is of a high quality.

Music overall is up to personal taste, which can't be argued with, but that doesn't mean the music people like is good music. What if you met a guy whose favorite song was some shitty kick drum sound over and over again with a recording of a man yelling over the top of it. You'd be like, "hey man, that music is fucking stupid. It's terrible, it's not even music..." and he would say to you, "fuck you, I love this music." Just because he likes it, doesn't make it a good song musically.

It's the same with someone like 50 cent. Factually, there is nothing special about the music he makes. He is an average artist who happens to have a marketable image that is marketed well. The fact of the matter is he is average, he makes average music. Compared to someone like Tupac who had an extraordinary style, 50 cent is nothing. It's the same in any genre. There are a lot of electro producers that make average songs that sell well... It doesn't mean the music is actually good. On the other hand you've got groups like Daft Punk, who are geniuses in their field. They can make GOOD music, good as in of a high quality, put together skillfully, creative, not the same shit with a different smell.

You don't have to like a song to realize that it's good. You don't have to like rock music to realize that led zeppelin are talented, you don't need to like classical music to realize that Chopin is a good composer... I'm telling you that you don't know anything about music. You go around thinking that the music you like is the most amazing music in the world just because it happens to be the style of music you enjoy.