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American Life Rap. why did people hate it?


Madame Madonna
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNAw3f5VXA8

 

 

I'm not American (or British). And English is not my mother tongue.

And I really love this rap part from American life.

For me it sound really great, interesting and sexy so I really enjoy that part.

 

But it seems like most of people which English is their native language hate it.

I still remember some of american said that that rap part is really embarrassing to hear.

So I really wonder Could you anybody(which English is your native language) explain why you're so hate it?

 

Does this rap part is really sound bad to American (and British)?

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Guest ArthurBadin

The truth for me is that most of AL lyrics match exactly with my life expect for the first for verses of rap when she talks about her very personal experiences being a rich Kabbalist two-in-a-one woman.  :cry:  :tongue:  :kissy:

 

This is very similar to her "I Don't Give A" song lyrics when the only difference between two is that now she is divorced.  :tongue:  :cry:  :kissy:

 

In fact, AL is a very great anthem for outcats around the world who thave tried to fit in a pattern previously decided by society or even by tribes but they failed in that enterprise and decided to follow their own patterns. It's very Rebel Heart before Rebel Heart and it has the advantage of connecting empathicly with a lot of audience instead of RH what which very directioned to loyal M fans who know M enough to know how her history led her to be who is she today.

 

I praise AL, both album and song, for its impact still now when we seem to come back to Bush days or een worse, to Reagan days. I love when a con says that hates Madonna just for had listened to AL, "Oh, she dared to offend America! She dared to offend our way of life! She even dared to offend Jesus Christ!!!!"  :heart:  :heart:  :heart:

 

AL was the precise answer to that stupid patriotic climate America had been suffering since September 11, 2001 but she had to spoil it all when she declined to keep the original AL music video. That's why the reason why people rather listen "American Idiot" by Green Day which was released by the same time. They still think M should have the balls to keep the MV despite of lost of audience. "The woman who released SEX, Blond Ambition, Like a Prayer, even What It Feels like for a Girl MV, now gets afraid to release a very shocking but enlightening piece of art?" No, Madonna, you is not cool anymore." And don't think Re-Invention made things go better cause most audience hated her Kabbalah-John Lennon-fusion persona there. By the way, Rit aged very badly at least in my opinion. Confessions Tour was a better tour at the time it was being done and still is. It shows a Lady-of-the-Manor persona but even so is better than the housewife-fumed-with-country-taxes she seemed during Rit.

 

American Life should have deserved a better treatment by both Madonna and GP. But, when less you wait, most of it is performed at her TOAC concerts. Proof of the wine-quality of both song and album.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNAw3f5VXA8

 

 

I'm not American (or British). And English is not my mother tongue.

And I really love this rap part from American life.

For me it sound really great, interesting and sexy so I really enjoy that part.

 

But it seems like most of people which English is their native language hate it.

I still remember some of american said that that rap part is really embarrassing to hear.

So I really wonder Could you anybody(which English is your native language) explain why you're so hate it?

 

Does this rap part is really sound bad to American (and British)?

A white italian woman doing something an african american man would, that really pissed people off. It was just a matter of sexism and racism.

 

But IMO, that rap is so hard to sing even Madonna can't, so I hate it because of that.

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Guest ArthurBadin

Some of the rhymes are... a choice. I don't hate it but it makes me cringe a little bit.

I've always believed AL was directly made for non-English speakers since it gives a perspective from inside America to overseas, foreign peoples (especially the ones who had been a history of suffering from American "imperialism"). Hence the Dr. Seuss-ish lyrics. Plus it was a tongue-in-cheek response to the most monochromatic, monosyllabic 101 typical con/redneck/Republican speech/point of view/agenda.

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I really like it. I really can't remember what was going on in america. I really am thinking it was 9/11. :cry: I might be wrong. that day is edged in my brain. that made her kindly  mute some songs in this album i'm thinking if i'm not mistaken even one of her videos. Wish it had been released another time. Cause i really loved this album. 

Bush sent troops to Iraq. The week before the video was supposed to come out, a war broke out there. Madonna decided to pull it off, but it was too late for the album, which had the whole army theme in its artwork.

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I remember her saying she was parodying rappers who rap about all the luxuries and things they have and seeing American Life deals with materialism it fit the song however, the humor behind it wouldn't be so apparent to a lot of people and it came off to "Madonna trying to rap." 

Though I prefer the RIT version of the song.
 

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A white italian woman doing something an african american man would, that really pissed people off. It was just a matter of sexism and racism.

 

But IMO, that rap is so hard to sing even Madonna can't, so I hate it because of that.

I dont think its racist for Madonna to rap. She wasnt being disrespectful? It is black culture but its not like she came out saying the n word.

 

I also didnt know it "pissed people off", its more like people made fun of her for it? The anger was towards her being so called "anti american" and whatnot for criticizing her country.

 

But yes it was tongue in cheek, it wasnt that serious,

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I dont think its racist for Madonna to rap. She wasnt being disrespectful? It is black culture but its not like she came out saying the n word.

 

I also didnt know it "pissed people off", its more like people made fun of her for it? The anger was towards her being so called "anti american" and whatnot for criticizing her country.

 

But yes it was tongue in cheek, it wasnt that serious,

Don't get me wrong, I never thought it was racist. But you know how americans can be, specially conservative ones. They would never accept a woman doing a man's job, let alone a white woman rapping.

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Don't get me wrong, I never thought it was racist. But you know how americans can be, specially conservative ones. They would never accept a woman doing a man's job, let alone a white woman rapping.

 

i mean conservatives think she's the worst regardless  :thinker:

 

some very PC ppl would maybe have a problem with it nowadays but as long as she's not mocking it, i dont think its wrong for her to do it. What popular music genre doesn't have black roots anyway  :cute:

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I never got that people hated it.  Possibly some fans hated it, but for the most part I felt like some were a bit embarrassed by it.  To be honest, it's a bit corny.  Though, it's all tongue and cheek.  She's basically rapping about how all these material things, etc., mean nothing to her. She's owning up to how she has gotten wrapped up in being materialistic at times, when it doesn't make you any much better of a person.  

 

Personally, I wasn't bothered by it.  Yeah, it's a bit corny, but it's all in fun. 

 

I do have to address the whole pulling of the original video.  Some people need to understand. It was a very volatile time.  The U.S. was going to war with another country.  The political climate was quite dicey.  It wasn't a time to release such a video, no matter how great you thought it was, etc.  I'm sorry but visuals of blowing up soldiers, children, etc, including Bush buddying up to Sadaam was not something needed to be seen at the time.  Furthermore, Madonna had a family to look out for.  She didn't need to be the subject of threats and nonsense over a silly video.  If anything, I applaud Madonna for not officially releasing that video at the time.  It definitely would have tanked her career if she did.  FOX NEWS (namely Bill O'Reilly) tried to give her a hard time over it, even though she decided to pull it.  When she made the video, U.S was uncertain about going to war.   Many people felt uncertain even once it began.  It wasn't a time to share such visuals with the public.  Certainly, I don't think Madonna was wrong for filming such a video, but releasing it at that time would have been inappropriate for the times.  And no matter how you come away from the video, many people would have seen it as quite disrespectful, especially towards soldiers.  The proof is how some took it anyway at the time, even when she pulled it.  People like Bill O'Reilly tried to smear her because of it.  Fortunately, she somehow softened the blow, yet the tone was already set.  Every promotional interview she did, she was asked about the war and the current political climate.  Madonna didn't really hold back.  It turned people off from the album, and mislead people to think the album was anti-American when the album didn't not have one bit of Anti sentiment to it.   Yet the cover and interviews didn't do the album any favors.  

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Very interesting to read! thanks guys to share your thoughts!

 

By the way if I'm not wrong I remember Madonna pull original video off because there was threat about killing her children. 

So People said that if that threat was just about Madonna herself she never pull that video off but she is Mother and that threat was about her children so she had no choice she had to pull it off because protect her children.

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Very interesting to read! thanks guys to share your thoughts!

 

By the way if I'm not wrong I remember Madonna pull original video off because there was threat about killing her children. 

So People said that if that threat was just about Madonna herself she never pull that video off but she is Mother and that threat was about her children so she had no choice she had to pull it off because protect her children.

It's true she was getting threats.  She even said if it was just her, she wouldn't have paid much mind to them, but since she had young children, she needed to think about them.  She also felt it needed to be pulled out of respect of all soldiers being shipped out.  So I don't fault her in anyway for pulling the video. It was the best thing to do at the time.  No video is worth the crap she and her family would have gotten if she went ahead and kept it.  In the end, it's not like it didn't get out to the public.  Fans got to see it and she ended up using it on her follow up tour.

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For me the rap is just poorly done. There is a particular rhythm and flow to rap that Madonna's AL just didn't have, it sounds stilted and awkward for me.

 

In 2003 Eminem, Jay Z, Missy Elliot and others were mainstream, so rap was not a niche genre anymore. Plus rap has a certain aesthetic as well. Most rappers needed some sort of street cred to be taken seriously.

 

If she had any of the above rappers doing it for her (I heard she wanted Eminem to do it) people would have loved it. There is a certain delivery that is key to good rap and the public were aware of what good rapping was/is and Madonna didn't cut it. 

 

No different than if she decided to do Opera, she might be able to hit certain notes, but her voice just isn't cut out for it. Some styles just don't suit certain people. Imagine Bob Dylan trying to sing like Whitney Houston, would be cringe worthy.

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I love it but the reception at the time was not good

She had been very successful with Ray of Light and Music, American Life sounded so different.

Her hair was black. She started this era with a tense and unsexy look.

She was serious, she had something to say (about war, about George W Bush, about celebrity). She had left the USA to settle almost full time in London. The song, and the album, had been recorded between London and Paris, produced by a French guy (from Afghanistan) and a Brit and she was calling out her homeland. 

An angry white female was rapping about the bullshit aspects of Western ideals (money, cars, good body) and making fun of herself at the same time. She was probably acting too smart for the masses and people hate intelligent women. (even more back then than they do today)

 

And Britney was starting to lose her shit.

 

Personnally, I struggled with the song for a long time, I love the intro and the verses. The chorus is clumsy, it never sounded very Madonna to me. But, as awkward as it sounds, the rap is the fun part. I guess the song was written a little too early and it was too radical to have a broad appeal. Her vocals don't sound nice on this part though.

 

Rihanna came just after that and she perfectly managed to cross hip hop and rnb over pop.

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Very interesting to read! thanks guys to share your thoughts!

 

By the way if I'm not wrong I remember Madonna pull original video off because there was threat about killing her children. 

So People said that if that threat was just about Madonna herself she never pull that video off but she is Mother and that threat was about her children so she had no choice she had to pull it off because protect her children.

This threat was actually in 2004, when the Re-Invention tour was scheduled to go to Israel. She was threatened by extremists to have her children killed if she did a show there.

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Let's not forget the lynch mob mentality people had and still have. Dixie Chicks faced it the worst for criticizing Bush.

If the video had been released, it would have been the one with Bush catching the grenade right? I don't think the Director's Cut was intended for release. She would have gotten flack for it and faced a Dixie Chicks similar backlash. I still applaud her for taking a chance but she did say she had gotten threats targeted at her children so I understand her need to protect them.

It's ironic how Green Day came out with a record later and it was a hit.  :thinker:

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The song itself was pretty straight forward that it related to popularity, American pop culture and social identities she both embraced and were cast upon her.

IMO I love the rap, and I found it to be cheeky and humorous in just the right way, but it also underlined the absurdity of playing the same ol’ Pop music game at that point in her life. I think she still gets a kick out of knowing what “the game†is, and that she can say what’s on her mind in clever and unexpected ways (like no one else can)... and it still make people uncomfortable or scratch their heads wondering what or why she does the things she does.

While most artists at that time were writing America post-9/11 love letters, or making broad non-musical statements of protest (Dixie Chicks) she kicked off her next era being critical of the politics that accompanied a post-9/11 America.

If it was construed as racist, or white-priveleged, MOST of that commentary came from fans that don’t like urban Madonna. The funniest part of that argument was the complete lack of urban-radio Sonics on that single. Having lived through that most polarizing of eras (even Hard Candy was less hated...and less loved) I think fans had much higher hopes for a more dance oriented album, and were floored by the simplicity and intimacy of American Life as an album. I was floored, but in the best possible way. Sonically speaking, it’s best listened to privately, with headphones on. It’s aggressive and placid at the same time. There’s a sincere fierceness and anger and affection and confusion throughout the album, but it’s really evident in the song American Life, so the rap not only made sense to me, it elevated that track in most unexpected way that It still surprises me sometimes.

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