Why do so many rappers take to Italian gangsters?

Mo Matik said:
This is a great article on this topic. It discusses how Italian mob culture, rap, and authenticity relate by analyzing the music video for Death of Autotune. it's really insightful.

Ok, calling someone less authentic than you is a standard combat maneuver. Nothing new there.

So if Jay-Z wants to depict his authenticity, to show how and raw, honest, legitimate he is in comparison to the other "******" he would do this by placing himself in authentic, legitimate, true to his roots situations and settings.
Here's where it got interesting.

Based on the video, Jay-Z is, deep down, a guy who dines alone in Italian restaurants.


View media item 611539

who pays his respects to the chef-- or the other way around--

View media item 611540
etc, for more pics see any episode of The Sopranos.

My first reaction was that maybe Jay-Z had had a stroke. Is he aware that he is not actually Italian?
Click to expand...

Check out the full piece here: http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2009/09/jay-z_gives_ten_reasons_why_po.html
Click to expand...

I think this article makes the fundamental mistake of assuming Jay-Z doesn't do any of this stuff in his own personal life.

I know lots of 20-something Black dudes in DC getting special tables at resturaunts, playing all-night poker in the backs of stores and restuaraunts downtown, smoking cigars, etc. That's real life for plenty of young Black dudes who aren't even rich. Just cats who like to live it up and live that REAL city life. Smoking blunts at the Washinton Momument, getting drunk on the Capitol Steps, partying with diplomats and whatnot. You don't HAVE to be rich to live that "who's who" city life. Being rich definitley puts you right in the middle of it, though.

Lots of chef's are cool/wild dudes and if you're down with them ya'll party and hangout and they will look out for you if you bring them business. They'll come out and say hi just outta respect. Same with bartenders, business owners, etc. Maybe because DC is a small city, it's easier to just make connections and basically live like a boss wihout having to associate it with being rich, or white, or Italian, or mob-connected. I just think the Mafia kinda symbolizes all that "cool dude who knows the corners and cuts of the city and is running things on some thugs-in-suits" type ****.
 
Last edited:
Mangudai954 said:
That's what gets me.
Click to expand...

I guess in some way a correlation can be drawn. I may be reaching here, but this is a thought that just came to me.

These mob bosses never cared for black people. But they profited off of them (bootlegging, drugs, gambling, sleeping with the women etc).

Black people hustling to other black people, treating their women like trash, can hardly be thought of as having their people's best interest in mind. By destroying communities with drugs and parentless children for the sake of their own advancement and turning their back on the place from which they came once they "made it", these folks are no better than the other races that hate blacks. So in some respect, these rappers are kinda similar to the mafia people whose personas they take on. They don't **** with black people either.

Maybe I'm reaching. Maybe not. The mind **** is real, though.
 
knowledgebones72 said:
I think this article makes the fundamental mistake of assuming Jay-Z doesn't do any of this stuff in his own personal life.

I know lots of 20-something Black dudes in DC getting special tables at resturaunts, playing all-night poker in the backs of stores and restuaraunts downtown, smoking cigars, etc. That's real life for plenty of young Black dudes who aren't even rich. Just cats who like to live it up and live that REAL city life. Smoking blunts at the Washinton Momument, getting drunk on the Capitol Steps, partying with diplomats and whatnot. You don't HAVE to be rich to live that "who's who" city life. Being rich definitley puts you right in the middle of it, though.

Lots of chef's are cool/wild dudes and if you're down with them ya'll party and hangout and they will look out for you if you bring them business. They'll come out and say hi just outta respect. Same with bartenders, business owners, etc. Maybe because DC is a small city, it's easier to just make connections and basically live like a boss wihout having to associate it with being rich, or white, or Italian, or mob-connected. I just think the Mafia kinda symbolizes all that "cool dude who knows the corners and cuts of the city and is running things on some thugs-in-suits" type ****.
Click to expand...

Funny you should say that, I got that vibe when I went out to this Brazilian Steakhouse in DC the other day. Same stuff you talked about.
 
Because Mafioso rap was popular, and still is. Rapping like your a crime boss, is more easier and marketable then rapping about normal real life epidemics.
 
I'm gonna change my producer name to something like this when I get ready to start submitting tracks to major labels/artists... :pimp:
 
Tis has been a long overdue debate in the hip hop community.... It seems like these real gangsters are more identifiable but when it's comes to racism old school Italians hate on everyone equally which is a sad state of affairs ESP in this day and age but it will always be like that and it's coming from a 100% wop growing up in Howard beach
 
honestly, in NY we have (really had at this point) little Italy and all that **** was on the news plus it was glorified in movies. So of course ppl would associate with it.
 
jaysfiend23 said:
Tis has been a long overdue debate in the hip hop community.... It seems like these real gangsters are more identifiable but when it's comes to racism old school Italians hate on everyone equally which is a sad state of affairs ESP in this day and age but it will always be like that and it's coming from a 100% wop growing up in Howard beach
Click to expand...

Yea, a lot of people don't get that racist Southern Europeans hate EVERYONE besides themselves, even when it comes to the same race within their own countries. Northern vs Southern Italians, Castillians vs everyone else in Spain, etc :lol: it's sad and pathetic at the same time, such a waste of time and energy to hate on so many people
 
DipsetGeneral said:
It is interesting. They do look up to them in a certain sense, but acknowledge that John Gotti was a snitch. So it's like yeahhhh, but not really.
Click to expand...
Except he wasn't 
indifferent.gif
 
It's because a lot of rappers glorify criminality, and success against all odds. And nothing really embodies that duality quite like organized crime.
 
the italian mob is the most romanticized/popularized by all forms media and entertainment not just rap
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Basically,even before televisions and movies about gangsters the government made that happen especially when Hoover was in office.

The Italians also kept going further with it while the Irish,Jews and anything else in between those mostly went legit by way of businesses,politics,unions,..ect.All but the blacks,why?It would be very hard to be a gangster without any real connections,any real viable source of illegal funds and little to no support from your own people who have nothing to give but everything to gain.

They all couldn't be named Bumpy there was only one of him and he because what he was because blacks had established something,he tried to hold on to it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

The ultimate sneaker enthusiast community.

NikeTalk was created as a way of giving back to both the sneaker enthusiast community and to the greater global community of which we are all a part.

NikeTalk is NOT affiliated with Nike Inc. in any way, shape, or form. All opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Nike, Inc.

© 1999-2024 NikeTalk.com

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom