R.I.P. to a decade of excess

[SkinnyGoomba]

Yeah i actually liked kingdom come alot, but most of the fans couldnt relate to it.

50 did a fantastic job of clapping out the ranks of the average rapper, young buck went broke actually owed 50 cent a large amount of money from what i understand.

Most of them never leave the mentallity of spend all your money today, because tomorrow might not be here, and thats their undoing in the end, along with most people actually, all of those who bought the zero down, interest only houses and lived pretend rich until the house of cards collapsed.

Doesnt surprise me that Dame's broke, he was bought out for $30m, and yet managed to maintain being driven in Maybachs, and as i saw on wikipedia $80,000/month in mortgages, along with i'm sure some other large monthly bills, and spending alot of money on ventures that never quite stuck.

 

[SField]

Originally Posted by SkinnyGoomba

Yeah i actually liked kingdom come alot, but most of the fans couldnt relate to it.

50 did a fantastic job of clapping out the ranks of the average rapper, young buck went broke actually owed 50 cent a large amount of money from what i understand.

Most of them never leave the mentallity of spend all your money today, because tomorrow might not be here, and thats their undoing in the end, along with most people actually, all of those who bought the zero down, interest only houses and lived pretend rich until the house of cards collapsed.

Doesnt surprise me that Dame's broke, he was bought out for $30m, and yet managed to maintain being driven in Maybachs, and as i saw on wikipedia $80,000/month in mortgages, along with i'm sure some other large monthly bills, and spending alot of money on ventures that never quite stuck.

But here's the thing, most rappers never even made that much money.

Advances have to be paid back. Back in the mid 90s, the heyday of rap, they were paying producers amounts that you wouldn't believe. I would know, because I was one. That and features cost people a lot of cash. That had to go back to the label.

Album sales never made artists much money. Maybe a couple cents per album, then consider tax, agent/management fees. Even big time sellers don't see much $$ from album sales unless they're on Koch or did it themselves like Oasis did. Most of the money comes from merchandise and touring. Since most of them rarely tour, they don't sell much merch. This is where the clothing line thing came about, and many of them failed.

So long story short, most of the rappers out there didn't make much money at all.

 

[Fuuma]

I was glad to learn that the way some people define themselves through consumption makes them classier than some others who don't consume properly.

 

[SField]

Originally Posted by Fuuma

I was glad to learn that the way some people define themselves through consumption makes them classier than some others who don't consume properly.

yea um... I certainly don't agree with this.

 

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by SField

yea um... I certainly don't agree with this.

As I said before, class is like taste or being cool, for some to have that attribute you need a bunch of people not to have it. It is essentially a good of limited availability and our consumption is one of the way we exemplify where we stand on that wonderful totem pole.

 

[binge]

Originally Posted by Fuuma

As I said before, class is like taste or being cool, for some to have that attribute you need a bunch of people not to have it.

Isn't that true of pretty much everything. To discern that someone has a trait, you need a sample of those not having that same trait.

 

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by binge

Isn't that true of pretty much everything. To discern that someone has a trait, you need a sample of those not having that same trait.

You removed the limited availability part. In theory everyone can own pants or have a skateboard, but taste is essentially positional.

 

[binge]

Originally Posted by Fuuma

You removed the limited availability part. In theory everyone can own pants or have a skateboard, but taste is essentially positional.

Taste is a good just like a skateboard or a pair of pants? One to be bought and sold just like?

 

[freshcutgrass]

I generally don't make judgments on personal taste based on "products" that limit consuming based on dollar value. I prefer the great equalizing things...like music, film, literature. Since all music, films and literature costs basically the same no matter what it is, and is cheap enough for anyone to afford, it is far more telling.

 

[binge]

Why do you make judgments on personal taste of others? What do you get out of it? Enjoyment? Satisfaction? Something else?

 

[freshcutgrass]

Why do you make judgments on personal taste of others?

Because I'm a bipedal primate known as **** sapiens sapiens.

 

[binge]

Sounds like we've found one arena where humans simply do not have the free will to choose...interesting.

 

[hypersonic]

Originally Posted by binge

Why do you make judgments on personal taste of others? What do you get out of it? Enjoyment? Satisfaction? Something else?


Hmm, I guess it depends how you approach it. Personally, I am interested in why people consume the things they do from a kind of social anthropological perspective.

As someone else alluded to earlier, we seem to have arrived at a situation where many people consume to acquire and project an identity (or in some cases, a personality) -- this pre-packaged, two-dimensional 'identity' acts as a kind of psychological crutch for a low self-esteem -- this is ultimately a very unsatisfying way to live your life.

 

[binge]

Originally Posted by hypersonic

Hmm, I guess it depends how you approach it. Personally, I am interested in why people consume the things they do from a kind of social anthropology perspective.

As someone else alluded to earlier, we seem to have arrived at a situation where many people consume to acquire and project an identity (or in some cases, a personality) -- this pre-packaged, two-dimensional 'identity' acts as a kind of psychological crutch for a low self-esteem -- this is ultimately a very unsatisfying way to live your life.

I was with you up until the bolded part. You could certainly feel like it would be an unsatisfying way to live your own life (with which I have no quarrel), but I just don't get the notion that one can decide whether it's a satisfying way for others to live their lives. There are plenty of people who live their lives in ways that would be unsatisfying to me, but they are entirely happy.

 

[hypersonic]

You know, you have a good point there. I guess I am basing my point of some real-life examples I have in mind -- but you are correct, some people do appear to be happy living that way.