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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
You misunderstand. Lets Get Free is perhaps the most meaningful, substantive, and deep hip-hop record of all time. Easily in the all-time top5 for conscious rap with substance. Its not that I haven't listened to any rap or hip hop since Lets Get Free, its that in all honesty, I can't think of a single record with as much substance and meaning that has come out SINCE then aside from The Psychic World of Walter Reed, and if anything, Killah Priest may have just topped it. Again, I dare say TPWOWR may just be the most meaningful rap album of ALL TIME, I mean seriously, list me five equally or more substantive records to come out in the past 15-20 years?
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Depends on your definition of meaning and substance. You're right that the album is off the charts in terms of spiritual reflection and socio-culturally relevant lyrics. However, I also find it to be rather single-minded; it's not, in all likelihood, extremely meaningful for the average person. It's not meaningful in the sense that it makes you look at your own experience from a global perspective, and see it for what it is. Rather, it's probably meaningful for people with strong spiritual and religious opinions, who already fall in line with Killah in his ideology.
I do love it, but I love it not because it reflects my own beliefs, or because I agree with the sentiment, but instead because it's really well executed rap music. I'll bet it would actually be quite alienating for a lot of people if it were targeting a more mainstream audience.
Now, my definition of meaning is different (or maybe just less decisive). I find My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to be an extremely meaningful record, in the "wake up and smell the fucking coffee; your life is shameful" kind of way. I doubt many people hear it that way, but to me it's so dead on in the way it addresses gender issues, media issues, materialism, male archetypes in modern relationships, and the way a heart can be quietly broken without being heard, due to the obliviousness and selfishness with which we treat one another, and the complete lack of empathy we have for everyone who isn't us (me).
But I can see meaning in this motherfucking beast of an album too. I just don't feel it. It's not likely to make me cry, or make me feel the stung of my own careless choices, but it definitely is thought provoking and compelling.
Point is, I could easily name ten more meaningful albums, but they'd only be "more meaningful" to me, so it's an impossible challenge to even try.
