Very interesting stuff. Perhaps I like to root for the underdog as well.

Brownngirl’s last blog post..Ed-ju-kay-shun.

jess – i don’t know about the Zen thing. I mean I know what you mean, but Zen kind of sounds too passive, as if you don’t care whether it comes or not. I really believe the charismatic person needs it and strongly desires it as much as anyone else, they just want it on their terms or not at all. It’s not that they don’t want it or need it, it’s that no matter how much they want, they’re still willing to let it go at the end of the day if they don’t get it on the terms they want and define.

As far as Kanye vs. 50 goes, I don’t buy into this whole revisionist interpretation of Kanye going around where he’s some type of conscious, more musical, deeper rapper and 50 is fluff or garbage. I think Kanye and 50 are exactly the same. Both talk about materialism, hoes, jewelry, their money, how cool they are, how popular they are, etc. Neither are especially deep in lyrical content. But somehow Kanye gets lumped in with the “conscious rap” crowd because he has middle class attire and hangs out with people like the Roots, Mos Def and Common. But despite his association with them, at the end of the day I’d lump him in more with 50′s style of rap, just minus the gunplay.

I think 50 and Kanye are both charismatic, both of them pull you into their reality. They are both in the Jay-Z camp of setting trends and being leaders. When 50′s 1st album first came out, he had a stranglehold on the club scene, I mean you spent the whole night waiting for the 50 songs to come on. It was an eruption on the dancefloor when the first few notes of “What up Gangsta?” or “In Da Club” came on. Every car radio was blasting his music when you walked the street. He pretty much singlehandedly killed the rap career of the multiplatinum reigning artist of the time Ja Rule. Ja Rule sold millions on millions of records, yet after 50 was through with him you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who’ll admit having ever been a fan, even now. I know it’s fashionable to hate him now, but he’s definitely charismatic. Kanye too. Both are definitely above Nas so far as sucking people into their reality, even though Nas is probably better lyrically than both put together.

I’m planning on writing something similar on lil wayne and about how he’s taken his game to another level ready to take the tourch from JayZ and why he can.

Thanks for the insperation

Desiree’s last blog post..Testimonials

A description of what charisma is versus charm, and how the two are not interchangeable. Examples are also given, from Jay-Z, Nas and Biggie Smalls and even a 14 year old chubby kid from New York (they all have charisma) and Nas (who doesn’t have cha…