Actual Equality?

In life, everyone has something good about them. When people try to accentuate those qualities, it quickly turns into something negative. "Should people prolific on the inside need to be prolific on the outside and vice versa"? 

People say equality all the time, but they don't really think about how empty that word is in today's society. In God's eyes we are all equal. All appearances, intelligences, and financial statuses are equal, but is anyone really teaching that in 2025 or very boldly the opposite? Is there even an evolutionary argument for equality? 

Mechanical acceptance divides even with equality, and there's mechanical inequalities without prejudices. Do you believe all people are equal or are you simply trying to change how we're assessing them?

Focal Point

Being the center of attention has its advantages. It provides a functional protection from secretive people and it patents your ideas as fast as you create them. 

The problem is right now, power is everything. Hip hop is being weighed by its effect on the culture. 

The positive side of making culture appeal is fine. The problem is every positive reason to love the culture is twisted to augment social filters. And because no one is visible to be accountable, the artists are taking blame for everything.

Technology and Music Interest

Technology has given a voice to countless artists. However, it has drastically weakened the impact of that music on their audiences. How do you measure music's importance beyond it's problem solving efficiency? 

Concerts send a strong message and defy politics if only for a few minutes. Artists give hope for relationships that are organic and emotionally satisfying. Songs that are imperfectly targeted can reach people that are overlooked by everything else. Music is important and technology is vital to sharing it well.

Algorithm Irony

People seem so critical of thug culture, and yet they feel perfectly fine pushing the most aggressive and negative artists in rap. Now it's important to showcase the culture in its entirety, but what you glorify with success will be what people will imitate. We all have dreams.

Criteria

The standards are so much higher for white rappers than black rappers. The standards are so much higher for younger rappers. The standards are so high, and yet allow such average content to be accepted and even celebrated.

Default

Society claims to be afraid or boldly unafraid whenever it's convenient for hate. Society is bitter about universal problems, but warp those problems to target convenient targets. RapIndie is very inviting and friendly, but all we can do for bitterness is display artists with the same bitterness you have for the same problems.

Uniformity

If you don't want to exactly adhere to a pattern, then why not keep people that lighten your pressure to adhere to a pattern?

Back to Elitism

Being anti quality-control only works with noble intentions. All or nothing inclusivity is not resulting in "all". Empowering simplicity: good. Empowering poverty: good. Empowering mediocrity: not working.

Aggression

Hip hop culture has traditionally been a voice for people in poverty. Poverty usually increases crime. Although RapIndie's vision is an innovative rewrite of what it means to be a rapper, tolerance for the norms of hip hop culture is something we expect from our audience. It's ok to prefer the best of hip hop (we do), but we would like to ask for a little understanding for the worst of it.

Maybe Less IS More...

Quality is usually important. It's impactful, infectious, and evokes attachment. However, intentional lack of quality may be doing more good than simply making the world less critical.

1. In a world of digital art, real artists are often more inspired to try new seemingly easy things.

2. Are curator standards different than the casual audiences? Maybe people are satisfied.

3. Artists that blend in are more accepted and unified.

Unity

A while back, some people got together and over-powered exclusion. 

One of the biggest issues was that mob-mentality appropriation was inescapable in every community. Is the refusal to shout out "RapIndie" culture shock? Passive aggression?

The hip hop football team needs every position. Someone needed to showcase the potential of the culture, someone needed to use that potential to create a community, and someone needs to share/translate that community to every audience.

Bad Equality

Equality isn't always good. Lowering everyone to the bottom is worse than allowing different heights. There are also functional differences that are not about preferential treatment or prejudice.

Is it working?

Usually we trade ideas about achieving equality. However, it's just as important to ask the question, "are our ideas working"? Are people less boujee in 2025? Is the eco system in balance? Is equality truly the goal of the ideas? What's going on?

What Would Make You Special?

A lot of rappers market to their own cultures. In 2025, it barely makes sense to try to do otherwise. However, when you do make cross-over content "what makes you special" is the theme for most of it. While that question is misguided, a fun question is "what would make you special?" Before you say "nothing", give the opportunity some thought.

Enable or Filter

RapIndie has to work with what's out there. Truthfully, a lot of rappers are living very difficult lives. When we showcase the rap game in its entirety, we get accused of endorsing all of their behavior. When we solely showcase the positive rappers, we get accused of hiding their behavior. While both are valid points, which would you prefer?

Is intelligence-level tribalism our fault or is it the result of a distinction made by other cultures?

Is intelligence-level tribalism our fault or is it the result of a distinction made by other cultures?
Maybe there's a middle ground between demanding people in poverty to be magically educated and branding "authentic" black culture as "ignorant".
Maybe we're already being taught to relate to each other using metaphors. Maybe poverty based music is connecting with a majority that only has the illusion of intelligence.

Up

Have you ever noticed that when tearing people down, everyone is an expert. However, when it's time to build themselves up, they struggle on a comical level. 

Winners don't feel like winners anymore. And that's a problem because they end up over-powered trolls and life-wreckers with endless resources. Building yourself up is a skill that you have to practice. You can't put everything at the bottom.

Exclusivity Advantages?

Exclusivity is fun. It raises value. It boosts self-esteem. It preserves logical integrity. 

The problem is it's not always advantageous to compulsively exclude others. Everyone has something to contribute and there's power in numbers. Sacrificing a little ego can go a long way.

Selfless Fandom

Selfless support doesn't always come naturally, but it is the fuel of music in general. Smaller artists are perceived as less good. Bigger artists are perceived as not needing support. However, the truth is sincere support is rare and mutually beneficial. 

Why doesn't "Creator Swag" hold up in real life?

Being an internet or tv celebrity is great but cross-over markets are not dependable enough to build a lifestyle off of. The question is why?

1. One theory is the earlier generational audiences simply aren't aware of ALL of our favorite rappers.

Other theories are:

2. Facial recognition is inconvenient.

3. Kindness/acceptance in the authority vs kindness/acceptance of the community.

4. Ever-evolving criteria for acceptance.

5. Conditioning of mindless exclusion.

Maybe "Creator Swag" is working and people underestimate it based on their own experiences of exclusion, and perceived reactions. Do you make an effort to make earned exceptions to your filters?